I am pleased to see Amendment V, the open non-partisan primary proposal, get national attention in the Wall Street Journal. But I almost can’t get past this line:
“It would make people look for something different: what does [the candidate] believe in?” said Sioux Falls resident Regie Poppenga, a Democrat who supports Mr. Trump for president [Kristina Peterson, “Effort in South Dakota Aims to Drop Parties,” Wall Street Journal, 2016.03.28].
Regie! Get your poop in a group! If you support Donald Trump, you aren’t a Democrat. If you’re a Democrat, you aren’t supporting Donald Trump. You are confused, or you are statistical polling error, you are a product of fan fiction, or you are playing a primary chaos game that isn’t worth it. Even if you think Mussolini will be easier for the Democrats you truly love, you don’t stain your soul and put Rome at risk by signing up for the Fascist Party and voting for Mussolini.
Mr. Poppenga, you may be a Democrat. You may be a Trump voter. But you can not be both.
Drumpf believes he is the GOAT. He believes he’d be banging his hot daughter if he wasn’t married and she wasn’t his daughter. He believes free speech is allowed only if it is about how great he is. He believes the words penis and prick are synonymous.
That’s right…. You either check the R or the D at the top of the page and there aint no in between…. You will fit right in in Pierre CAH party first all else second..
Bret, the Democratic tent is pretty big, but I don’t think it is big enough to encompass a narcissistic, billionaire, one-percenter with fascist and racist views and his followers. But hey, that’s just me.
Strom Thurmond-type Dixiecrats would make Drumpf feel right at home.
Kim Davis of Kaintuck is such a Dixiecrat.
Darin, I’m not advocating for Trump. I’m against denigrating someone for the mere reason of crossing party lines for something they believe in…I tire of watching party line votes in Pierre even though it may go against their principles or worse when it goes against supposed party principles…
I have known Republicans who supported Tom Daschle. And there have been Democrats who have support John Thune.
One thing about South Dakotans is they have knack for supporting who they believe will do the best job, regardless of their party affiliation.
I think perhaps a different interpretation of the claims of ‘Trump Democrats’ is simply the DNC/media/society-at-large waking up to the realization that working-class whites, once the base of the Democratic Party, are no longer. One of those ‘it takes a while for perception to catch up with reality’ cases.
Maybe part of it is, I think, that one could have reasonably thought, given Hilary’s high primary support in 2008 among less-educated white Democrat voters, and other factors (like the GOP’s 47% and makers vs takers language), that the statement ‘working class whites are mainly Democrats’ would have become true again, that the supposed aberration would reverse itself. But *I think* that dwindling (which I think technically started in the ’90s) is maybe driven more by social/cultural differences with the rest of the Democratic base about race, gender, etc.
And you know, can we really blame people for taking a while to catch up to this notion? A US where the working-class isn’t this rigid pro-Democrat demographics is a strange idea, even when I know the numbers say it isn’t true anymore. The final pin drop in this will be if the Unions switch allegiance to whatever Frankenstein monster party is formed from Trump+GOP. (Where all the anti-union GOP members will go then is a very good question.)
In reference to my comment on the other post about the notion of Democratic support for Trump, I doubt many of the WNY ‘Democrats’ I knew growing up have been registered Democrat since 2008, or well before. My memory of them as Democrats is probably is more like nostalgia, an after-image left on an old photograph.
Bret, I know what you are saying about putting party over state or country and I generally agree. In the case of Trump, however, I don’t know how someone could consider themselves a Democrat and still support this nut. He was born with $200 million in the bank so Trump does not relate well with the middle class. He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. He is callous toward the poor and disaffected. He calls people that are down on their luck “losers.” He denigrates John McCain and other POWs who honorably and courageously served our country and were tortured for it. Trump is a cult of personality that reminds me of the Hunger Games and the Coliseum during Roman times. He feeds on the worst of society’s faults and fears. He is the worst of us. His narcissism knows no bounds.
The best I can say about any Democrat who supports Trump is that they are ignorant.
I think Cory is wrong on this argument. All it takes to adopt a party is to claim to be a member when you register to vote. You don’t have to agree with any party platform or support everyone in that party. All you have to do is register appropriately.
Indeed, honest people can claim to be in any party they choose and can work to convince others in that party to reject policy positions that others in the party support.
If this Trump supporter has registered as a Democrat, then he is a Democrat, even if he disagrees with and would change Democratic policy positions.
I am sensitive to this issue because I am a long time registered Republican who would love to see the Republican party change it’s policy positions on both social and economic issues. I plan on voting for either Hillary or Bernie in the general election and abhor the candidates other Republicans are now supporting, such as Trump, Cruz, or even Kasich. Just because I am registered in one party, I should be able to vote for the candidate I consider to support policy positions I favor without be denigrated or called a RINO. I think all Democrats deserve the same consideration, including those who support Trump or any other Republican.
I equate this conversation to when someone calls themselves a Christian and turns around and bombs an abortion clinic. Then you see other Christians who come out and profess that the bomber was not in fact a Christian.
Who are we to say what someone identifies as? If you believe in free will then you have to acknowledge that some people will identify as something which seems the opposite of what we might see them as. However there are transgender people who identify as the opposite sex of what they were born with and we support that regardless of whether they have underwent gender reassignment surgery. What is important is how a person sees himself or herself – not what we see them as.
I’m guessing in Mr. Poppenga’s case he would have a difficult time explaining why he calls himself a Democrat since he seems to support someone who doesn’t support any of the key policy ideals shared by Democrats. However if he wishes to continue calling himself a Democrat it is entirely his choice and his business. The world keeps spinning either way.
Bret, I don’t think that’s what I’m saying. I’ve voted for the occasional Republican (e.g., Marty Jackley, 2014). Crossing the aisle does not disqualify one from the party. Voting for Donald Trump, however, does not square with being a Democrat. As Craig notes, Trump’s statements throughout the campaign are anathema to the principles of the Democratic Party. I wouldn’t flip my lid if Mr. Poppenga described himself as a Kasich Democrat, a Pressler Democrat… heck, maybe even a Janklow Democrat. But saying one is a Trump Democrat is like saying one is a Lutheran nun. The terms are far more mutually exclusive.
With respect to Bearcreekbat’s fair concern for self-determination, yes, I get cranky, too, when someone tells me I am not what I say I am. I accept the notion that a good Republican could look at the field of candidates and conclude that none of the Republicans are as good as at least one of the Democrats, and vice versa. But I won’t give in to complete relativism on claimed partisan labels. I think there is some substance to the charge that someone who votes for Democratic candidates more often than not and wants the Republican Party to change its positions on several (threshold: 51%? 67%? 80%) issues really is a Republican in name only.
Bear, I understand that you satisfy the legal, technical definition of “Republican”—you’ve registered in that party. I understand that you’re saying there shouldn’t be any other test for the accuracy of your description of yourself as a Republican. But practically, no one would view it that simply. If I were composing a campaign mailing list and all I saw was the “R” in front of your name, I might send you a very different letter (if I sent you a letter at all) from what I would send if I knew that despite your “R” you are quite willing to vote across party lines. You are technically a Republican but practically a very different voter.
A label is ideally a mutually understood term of description. You don’t label yourself to you help YOU understand what you are. You label yourself to help OTHERS understand who you are better. That being said, if you label yourself a smart idiot or a giant little person or democratic Trump supporter, you are going to get people asking questions and challenging your labels.
So yes, it is a free country. Call yourself whatever you want. Don’t expect everyone else to think you make sense. They have a right to their opinion too.
Trump seems like the only Republican candidate for president that a Democrat might support. Indeed, that is a key argument of his rivals, namely, that he is not a true conservative. With Trump there is at least some small possibility of him supporting humanistic and progressive public policies, while with Cruz and Kasich it appears that possibility is closer to none. Thus the argument that someone could legitimately be a Kasich or Cruz Democrat, but not a Trump Democrat seems a stretch.
And Paul T, I have not labeled myself to help others understand who I am. At the time I first registered to vote, many years ago, LBJ was in office and aggressively prosecuting a war I believed to be very wrong. Hence I decided my registration based on my opposition to what I perceived to be a Democrat induced war under Kennedy and Johnson.
Under the Republican Nixon administration, several progressive ideas bore fruit, such as the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), Clean Air and Water Acts, the Endangered Species Act, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. His administration also supported many policies to strengthen the social safety net. And his administration got the US out of Vietnam.
Our Country really began to regress under Reagan (a former Democrat by the way). He demonized the most defenseless of our people (welfare recipients). He tried (unsuccessfully) to defund Legal Services programs so that no indigent or poor person would have the legal representation necessary to challenge public officials that failed or refused to obey progressive laws intended to benefit indigents.
While these efforts failed under Reagan, they actually gained ground under Clinton. His welfare reform hurt the poor and damaged our safety net. He did not stop a Republican controlled Congress from effectively castrating the LSC with laws that stopped lawsuits against corrupt public officials on all levels and significantly reduced LSC federal funding while restricting LSC programs from many other sources of funding.
Regardless, as the years passed by I was not required to register to vote again, and saw no compelling need to change my registration. There are problems with both parties depending on who they put in office. It really doesn’t much matter to me whether there is a D, I or R on my registration. What matters is the policies supported by the candidates.
After George W. Bush’s election, Republican office seekers have turned into war mongers as well as turning their backs on people in need and the middle class. With the rise of talk radio and Fox news, many Republicans now operate in a fact free bubble.
It is my hope that future Republicans might wake up, come back to the real world, and revisit the wisdom and benefits of progressive policies. Until then I plan on voting for candidates, regardless of party affiliation, who support progressive economic and social public policies.
If I can get Bear to run, I want his above paragraphs to appear next to his name. Sure vote-getters! :-)
Bear, I’d need to see Trump’s post-primary swing center to properly evaluate how much of his actual agenda would align with Democratic values. So far, Trump has only represented everything that is wrong with our political culture.
Thanks Cory. Trump is a moving target for sure. Assuming arguendo that we elect a Republican in 2016, Bill Maher reluctantly (acting like he was puking and washing his mouth out with bleach) endorsed Cruz over Trump last Friday night. His reasoning: A President Trump would likely have Maher killed by a drone as revenge for Maher’s public criticism of Trump!
Keep it up,big guy,bcb. Keep sounding sensible (like usual) and I might eat my words about never voting for a Republican for office higher than township level-where they can’t actually harm people.
Trump demanded to know why the Breitbart reporter was allowed to approach and ask him a question. He sounds like he believes he is royalty and the peasants shouldn’t bother him. Besides that pen in her hand could have been a knife.