Ozymandius

Actually, his tax plan is going to be released soon, and it will probably be similar to the plan he proposed in his book from 2011. Major cuts to income and corporate tax http://www.ontheissues.org/Archive/Get_Tough_Tax_Reform.htm Please try to become more informed about our presidential candidates. Low-information voters won't help make our country great again. Asked and answered. Why do you continue with the strawman that Trump is a conservative. I've already called him a moderate.

It's about the direction of the arrow, not where the arrow currently sits. Those parties went from like 5% to 20% in a short time. Within 15 years, Marine Le Pen will be president of France, imo. Trump has attacked Hillary and Obama plenty. He also called Bernie weak. O'Malley is irrelevant. And the media loves the ratings boost from Trump, so I don't see the tap getting turne off.

lol, economic conservatism. I completely disagree with what you said before about how the GOP should only focus on economic issues. You guys can't even convince America to understand that the minimum wage is bad and that raising it is even worse. The minimum wage should've been abolished years ago if economic messaging were persuasive with the populace. No, the way to win national elections is to energize your base, the way Trump is doing with his nationalism. There is more than one candidate out of the 17 that are running that will energize the base, btw. It remains to be seen whether the GOP Establishment will pivot to those candidates to try to unite the party. Nobody wants Jeb, and he will not win a general election. Jeb is also not an "economic conservative": http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394857/jeb-chambers-water-boy-michelle-malkin https://www.conservativereview.com/2016-presidential-candidates/candidates/jeb-bush#article-4

The Germans love him. He's got great relationships with the Germans. They buy his apartments. But they're killing us in trade.

Lame. He'll find the appropriate people. He found Chuck Laudner to run his Iowa campaign, despite never running for office before. Laudner was widely credited with winning Iowa for Santorum. He found Jeff Sessions to help with the immigration paper. Trump's already networked into that world, and it will continue to grow. I assume if he's the GOP nominee, the the Party will provide candidates as well for Mr. Trump to interview.

Newsflash: the character he plays on TV isn't how he runs his own company. He clearly has his own vision as well but will hire and consult with the best to carry out that vision properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7yU6QdiuYU

I have no problem with him governing like a CEO, actually. That's how it should be done, and I like that he's campaigning like a CEO. For his immigration policy paper, he consulted with conservative immigration wonk Jeff Sessions. He's going to release his tax plan soon, and I'm sure he'll have consulted with some equivalent tax wonk. I like that. Speaking of being held accountable, though, at some point you cuckservatives need to hold the GOP establishment and political consulting class accountable for not trying to bridge this divide between base and party. No matter what candidate you support, the objective is to beat the Democrats. While I enjoy trading barbs with cuckservatives online, at some point it doesn't make sense for the GOP consultants and talking heads like George Will to be criticizing the base. There needs to be some mediation. Ironically, Trump, if he weren't running for president, would be able to see the angles to bridge the divide. He's the greatest negotiator in the history of mankind. lol, Sanders will get crushed by Hillary's money or Biden's money (if the donors switch over to him). Sanders has no chance.

Immigration is a huge plank of his, no doubt. I think it accounts for about half of his 30%. The other half is a protest vote against the GOP's corruption, stupidity, and weakness. I think he can grow both planks. Au contraire, I see him as a viable MODERATE candidate who is anti-establishment and can win the general election, unlike the recently failed establishment guys. I think Trump will have surprising crossover appeal to working class blacks, independents tired of the BS of both parties, and young millennials that like his celebrity and style. Trump will have a lockdown on working class whites, and hopefully there will be enough cuckservative Republicans who will hold their nose and pull the lever for him to avoid a Hillary or Biden presidency. That's the coalition I think Trump can form, and I have bets with you and Magox that this coalition will win. I'm not the only one who thinks he can win in the general, btw:

Don't flatter yourself. Trump is polling at 32% according to the latest Reuters poll. Single-issue voters can't possibly account for 30% polling. Dissatisfaction with the GOP bending over for Obama after the previous mid-terms can. Again, you guys are misunderstanding that immigration is the only issue here. The pork-filled Cromnibus bill and the handling of the Iran deal revealed the GOP to be completely corrupt and stupid. Many voters just don't trust the establishment anymore. "Governing" shouldn't mean capitulating to Obama on everything. This could be where we're headed. I don't consider myself to be a Republican, and neither should you or anyone else. Political parties are just a tool, and sometimes they outlast their usefulness.

Not quite. The base is upset at the Republican Party. The divide is as wide as it's ever been. Trump, while a flawed candidate, is the best chance the base has had to defeat the establishment candidate in a long time. Partly because he appeals not just to the base, as polling has showed. I don't know if that makes him a "savant"/"savior", but we are enjoying having a fighting chance and his lambasting of the establishment.

If this were a typical election, the conservatives would split themselves among Cruz, Carson, Jindal, etc and the establishment would just grind those guys down over time with Jeb's money and infrastructure advantages. Maybe it's just serendipity with Trump, but it's also possible conservatives learned a lesson over the years from backing the likes of Bachmann, Santorum, and Gingrich. With Trump's money and celebrity (which leads to free media), the base has a puncher's chance of winning this time around, although I'd still bet against it. Trump's supporters are disaffected with the Party and are accepting less purity in exchange for a better chance of defeating Jeb. Will the establishment really try to win a general election with Jeb? That seems ridiculous to me, but we'll see.

Cruz 91% Santorum 85% Rubio 85% Perry 85% Paul 85% Trump 80% Kasich 52% Sanders 19% Clinton 19% O'Malley 17% Right-wing Libertarian

Like I said, the GOP messed things up since the 2014 midterms and hasn't done anything to try to mend fences with the base. Have you read any articles about Trump's supporters by the way? Here are two: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-22/trumpus-maximus-goes-to-mobile http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/donald-trump-voters/401408/ They are just decent Americans who are fed up with the ineffective, corrupt, dishonest Republican Party.

Actually, all candidates are a compromise in one way or another since you will rarely match up with your chosen candidate's positions 100%. Therefore, you have to prioritize what you really want. For most Trump supporters, three things are important. (1) That he's anti-establishment and self-funded for the most part, (2) That he speaks plainly, and (3) That he limits immigration, both illegal and legal. Those numbers have improved a ton since his campaign started. Let's see where they stand in a month or so. The split was going to happen anyway. The base is extremely unsatisfied that the establishment passed the CRomnibus bill and also managed to turn the Iran deal approval from 67-votes needed to approve to 67-votes needed to disapprove. That was just retarded. The Party can be mended in time for the general election, but the Establishment will have to play their cards right.

Yep, this sounds about right: Fox News contributor and Democratic pollster Pat Caddell told Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon that up to one-third of Republicans are ready to call it quits as members of the GOP.“The alienation among Republican voters is so high,” says Caddell, that conservatively “a quarter to one-third of the Republican party are hanging by a thread from bolting.” Caddell argues that GOP voters’ attitudes are “so anti-establishment,” and they give Republican leadership poor ratings. The revelation comes on the heels of polling data supervised by Caddell Associates andreported on Friday by Breitbart News that a stupefying 60% of Republicans who voted in the November elections either definitely or probably want someone other than Ohio Congressman Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) 35% to be the Speaker of the House. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/05/pollster-pat-caddell-one-third-of-gop-hanging-by-a-thread-from-bolting/

How do I have a blind eye? We both acknowledge minorities are going to vote Dem. You hold the fantasy that you can somehow turn that around, despite the Left's built-in advantages. How did the GOP antagonize Asians over the years? If anything, affirmative action should antagonize them. Correct. The Left is going to successfully paint the Right as racists and xenophobes no matter what we do. So we might as well start acting the part.

I didn't know you were King of Latinos and could speak for everyone. Personally, I'll wait for the exit polling. Not saying Trump will win >50% of their vote, but I think he'll do better than Romney and Dole and maybe a few other establishment guys that have been shoved down our throats. I only wish the Republican Party had taken a "whites-only strategy" over the years. I would loathe them much less. Opinions like mine, up until this election cycle, had been fringe. (They might still be fringe, to be fair; we'll see when primary voting actually is conducted.) The vast majority of the GOP has been trying to win the minority vote over the past couple of decades, and it's gotten you nowhere. Your example of the Asians actually serves MY point that the Left can't be overcome on winning the non-white vote. Asians should be Republicans -- family-oriented, successful and don't use welfare for the most part. Leftist policies like affirmative action quotas HURT the Asians with regard to stuff like college admission, and yet the Asians are still trending leftwards.

Just the illegals. Before Trump submitted his immigration plan, why were the Latinos voting Dem in increasing numbers? BTW, don't rule out Trump doing well among legal Latinos. Many of them don't like illegal immigration, either.

Starting to arrive!

Yeah, it makes much more sense that conservative Latinos end up voting for the leftist Democrats (who are leftist both socially and fiscally), because apparently the conservative Latinos got their feelings hurt by the big bad GOP. Brilliant.

(Oh yeah, I might add. If a significant number of Latinos are eschewing learning English, as some of you are suggesting, then that's going to be another roadblock to winning them over. Convincing them to go Right-wards pretty much has to mean better assimilation from that community.)

Watch the video. Even on social issues, they are starting to go left. Well, when you import all these immigrants from socialist countries, it makes sense that socialism will rise. I hope you're right. Sincerely. I hope the Right can win them over long-term. But I give it about a 1% chance. First, the Left are incredible at identity politics and winning the non-white vote. Their messaging, while full of deceit, is simple, seductive, and populist. Meanwhile, the Right has to teach immigrants Austrian economics, lol. Second, the Left has a head start because Hispanic immigrants tend to come from leftist countries. Third, the Left controls the schools, news media, and entertainment. Like I said, a 1% chance. But I hope I'm wrong. Sincerely.

Did you see the polling cited in the video? Yes, they are family-oriented. But they also like big government.

Being "conservative" is more than just about being against abortion. https://youtu.be/tTXILmKdrjo?t=1m30s They have to first understand that the reason their country sucks is leftism. Do they? This goes for everyone, not just Hispanics. Lots of white liberals leave crappy California to go live in Texas, only to continue voting for Democrats. Eventually Texas will be blue because of this and Latino immigration.