There are figures out there for this, and after this election they are just more confirmed; about 1/3rd of the population love Trump, about 45% hate Trump, and the remainder might be convinced to support Trump, but Trump keep's shooting his own feet.He'd lose, hard.
I really don't. I think people overestimate it.
More people hate Trump than love him, and the margin in between the two the two groups is not big enough to ignore for electoral purposes. Trump won in 2016 because Hillary was just that unlikable, and Trump represented something new from outside the system. He was a bull in china chop who caused the Dems to drop the mask, which is damned important; however his own ego and pettiness kept holding Trump back from being truly great as a leader and POTUS.
Not all of Trump's fuck ups and missteps are Dem lies or misinformation, and a lot of people who supported him before enthuisastically would only vote for him reluctantly now, and not with the expectation he will win.
You forget the Libertarian and Independent vote exists; the GOP needs candidates who can sway the center more than it needs people who pander to the hardcore base.Ron Paul (Dad, sure, but a good jump off point) is actually one of the reasons I'm very wary of any attempt to push Trump out at this point: the bullshit pulled against him in the Romney election: he had no chance, but the Republican Establishment still felt the need to fix things for Romney.
If Trump were to be pushed out, the people in charge of it would be Mitch, not DeSantis: I don't think DeSantis really has any national infrastructure of his own at this point: he would be throwing himself at the mercy of Mitch and the Republican establishment.
Trump has some national infrastructure, and at this point if 2024 is not something the Republicans are actually well positioned to win, its more productive for Trump to burn out on that, and hopefully pull down a few more establishment types with him.
If nothing else, Mitch McConnell will be 82 in 2024, and 86 in 2028. If the next big serious election the Republicans have a good chance to win is 2028, Mitch Will be gone by that point one way or another, and if you can get Trump/American force people in now, you can replace that generation with people who will be more in line with the then 50 year old Ron DeSantis, which would be an ideal age, and he will be able to do much more with a more friendly GOP elite.
Maybe this is time to focus more on continuing the purges to get a unified enough party, rather than compromising to an attempted big tent?
And the fact is Trump fucking stiffed a lot of the people he was supporting, once they won their primaries, and kept the money for his 2024 fund.
Do you really want to let Trump's pettiness, ego, and base greed continue to hobble the GOP when it comes to doing anything but preaching to the choir?
Spartan, I am going to say this as politely as I can, and what I cam going to say I say as someone who came over to Trump's side from the Dems, and who has tried to hold out faith in Trump for a very long time compared to others.All indications pointed to the Red Wave. Everyone from Dem to Republican and the MSN knew it was coming. Or so everyone thought. That has turned out not to be the case. Some races are still in play despite fact the Election has been over with for 2 to 3 days. I'll skip your sniping and get to American first movement. Trump actually didn't start that. Populism has been on the rise for years. Long before Trump came into the picture. Remember the Tea Party? That was just one version of it. Trump was just the man who made it a reality when the Tea Party was destroyed from the inside by the Establishment Leadership. So Right Wing Populism has been around for a while now.
Trump still has my vote. But if he doesn't run and DeSantis does, then he would have my vote. But DeSantis has said clearly he isn't running in 2024. So unless that changes this is a moot point.
The votes and opinions of the hardcore GOP/MAGA/Trump base matter less than those of fence sitters and centrists who are swing voting groups and can decide close races.
Trump is poison to them; they broke for him in 2016 because Hillary was just that bad, not because Trump is some magic man.