If Trump had the slightest bit of humility, JoeBentley, our fears (I shared yours) could have come true. Fortunately, he has none and actually believes that he's a magnificent genius. He's the gift that keeps on giving...to his enemies.
And honestly for the longest time I thought that's were the GOP was going with this whole thing, make sure Donald has his cult of personality hard core supporters locked in and then tone him down to bring in the moderates. Speaking on a purely political level it would have been a pretty good tactic and might have worked... as you say had they been able to get a bridle on their runaway horse.
I'm all over the map politically and made peace with it some time ago but I'll be the first to admit that GOP plays the game a 1,000 times better than the Democrats could ever hope too. The proof is how successful politically they have been despite... while being absolutely wrong about everything and on the wrong side of every single social issue ever.
Even their most hated detractors have to admit they are damn good at the game. In a way the Dems have never even approached. They are good are getting over things they really shouldn't be able to.
The Democrats could never do that. If the Democrats were factually as wrong about 1/10th of the things the GOP is they would have been destroyed as a viable political force decades ago. It actually speak for poorly for the Democrats that their arch rivals are openly racist, sexist, homophobic, science denying loons and they still manage to beat them, tie them, or lose within the margin of error 99% of the time. Watching the Democrats try to fight the Republicans is like paying for front row seats to see an in-his-prime Mike Tyson fight a wheelchair bound blind deaf thalidomide baby and Tyson only winning via a 12th round split decision. Yeah he won and but I still kind of want my money back.
The Democrats are just too disorganized, too scared, too ineffectual. That's why they don't get crap done even when they are in power. What's the old joke "I'm not a member of an organized party, I'm a Democrat." You could argue for the nobility of rising above politics but functionally it leaves with a party of bad ideas and a party of no ideas, a party where the wrong thing gets done or nothing gets done, one party that we know is going to break in the worst possible direction the second we open the gate and another party that's going to skittishly take two steps out the gate and just sit down whimpering to the point that at time I'd rather just let the bad party out on the hopes that maybe they'll make it somewhere good by accident because at least with them you get motion.
I like both parties about the same. I'm just a lot more scared of one of them being in power.
That being said this is an absolutely fascinating election speaking on a purely political level. I am sorta interested in how political science is going to look back on it after time has passed and it can be reviewed with fresh eyes.
