It looks as though new comments rise to tthe top now.

That "Bush wing" that Thomas talks about--where will they go when they have been excised from the Trumpist party--even after Trump is gone?

I see our politics as 40% Trump (hopeless, deplorable), 40% Democratic (ineffective, due to infighting and being outmaneuvered), and 20% homeless never-Trump ex-Republicans and conservative/moderate ex-Democrats. It may be a small group, but what they do may determine the future course of our politics. That's why I think it's important.

When I look at the Writer Beat crowd, most are in that group that can't stand Democratic candidates but won't admit to supporting Trump. So, I ask you, where?

I... did not vote for Trump last time because he was not a conservative, and I had promised myself I would settle for nothing less (after being forced to vote for the likes of McCain and Romney).

This time around, I may end up voting for Trump for two reasons.

1) I see no acceptable candidate running against him. Personally, I think the Democratic Party is so far gone (left) that I doubt it can produce one.

2) To send a message to the statist media, elite, deep state, and crazy left that has pushed all the overblown Russia collusion bullshit.

All you guys give grief to those who held their nose and voted for Trump last time (2016), especially Christian.

So, I ask you, where was the alternative? What candidate should they have supported instead based on their principles? Would you have rather they sat on their hands (and votes) and given the job to Hillary by proxy? (Actually, THAT is precisely what that particular criticism is about... Well, all I can say to that is we all hope those we despise and oppose are idiots.)

Stoner the problem I see is that you are asking wrong question/discussing wrong issue. Your concerns seem to centered on the parties. The parties are the problem. They are parties alright: theirs. We are not invited, except at election time. The parties are not going to be fixed. They both need to be destroyed

Little surprise coming from an "anarcho-libertarian gonzo". Political parties grow organically from the political milieu, and tend to evolve toward a two-party structure. Wishing that the two existing major parties "need to be destroyed" is about as constructive as wishing that Santa Claus was real.

"Your concerns seem to be centered on the parties. The parties are the problem."
Well, DUH! His concern is centered on the problem - how ridiculous is that?!

Admit it, BH - you don't know or care what you are talking about...

Youre close. I Know what you think, but I don't Care. You really need to work on your reading comprehension

Fair enough, so I ask: How do you destroy the immobility of the two-party system as we have it? The answer has to be a third "force" (--Let's not call it a party, we can celebrate once it has succeeded.)--one that rejects the parties yet has some organizational quality to produce positive value. ( It is not the Trump movement, which is a clownlike parody of that idea.)

I say in all sincerity (though as an outsider) that we need that moral force which conservatism could have to be restored to our politics to have any hope of resolving the stalemate. My best-case scenario for next year is discord between dRumpkins vs. the Repenticans, and the Democrat slide through. Sort of like 1992, or 1976. So my motives are dubious, however:

As for the Democratic party, that would take care of itself quickly enough once the menace of control of the government by the Trumpist Republicans has receded. They (we) can't wait to have at each other, but the imperative is to hold off until Mordor falls. That could happen in 2020, in 2022, or it could take decades still, though we must believe justice will prevail.

Jim I appreciate your voice in the conversation. I strongly disagree with most of your premise on things, but you do seem to be starting to recognize the source of at least some of the problems. Just my opinion, but you seem to be an old school Chicago democrat unable to separate yourself from the party identity. You can take boy out of Chicago, not the Chicago out of the boy 😁

I'm more like one of the Chicago 7, but I can't pick just one. Maybe Bobby Seale (the one that was bound and gagged in the courtroom because he just wouldn't STFU). Not from Chicago, though.

But I recall you had said that you did spend some years there?

Yes, you're right! I was an "economic migrant" from my adopted home (in New Mexico) to Ill. for a very good job, post-recession. (2011-2018) But now retired--lots of time to give you guys grief.

😆

Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble deciphering this unintelligible rubbish from Sutrina?!?!

Its you. Its definitely you. I suspect youd have difficulty deciphering the instructions on an air sickness bag

What's the matter, TBH; lose track of that apostrophe key?! At least Sutrina has the excuse of being ESL. Methinks English is your first (and only) language, and even then you don't speke it that gud…
Unintelligible means unreferenced pronouns; dependent clauses and phrases that do not modify anything; mixing verb tenses, numbers and persons; errors in grammar; errors in spelling; disorganized structure; all the confusing stuff that characterizes Sutrina's "writing".
On "the merits"; no, it isn't just me. As you can see, I got two other readers to affirm their inability to make sense of Sutrina's "writing". (And I notice with some mirth that your own ratio of "upvotes" is pretty anemic..)

You just continue to affirm my conclusions about you.

You just continue to spout nonsense. I fart in your general direction.

Little surprise coming from one so full of gas

Trump is not IN "a wing". Trump has no apparent, coherent theory of government. He has led the "Republican Party" into deep perdition; and citizens who hold what used to be "Republican values" cannot keep faith with the hypocrisy and debauchery of what that party has become under Trump. Thus, the need for a "Third Way": "The People who have some moral decency but reject the madness of the Democratic version of democracy need a place to go."
What is your objection to Bill Weld, for example?
As a progressive, I have no dog in that fight; but there is NO DOUBT that excusing Trump is a fool's errand..And I don't have anything nice to say about McConnell either, so I just won't say anything.

"...and applying the law differently in each"
Typical. No period at the end of the sentence(!?) Each what? Each class? Any evidence to support that baseless claim?
Your premise is 50% mere name calling, 40% historical nonsense, and 5% terrible math...
Trump's economic policies include the imposition of tariffs, on friend and foe alike, even while using the Commodity Credit Corporation to pay farmers billions of dollars to offset the damage that the tariffs have done. And the wanton lowering of taxes while increasing government outlays so that the federal deficit grows in peacetime. Is that what you refer to as "following the general path that Coolidge, Kennedy and Reagan followed"?

It seems that here at Disqus at Mad Mad World community which is 90% Conservative I once met an idea "Pence for presidence". So Republican supporters have more ideas about the next president than one.

Well, I remember how hard it was to the US election committee to choose between Bush and Gore. It was absorbing to watch that situation even from far abroad in the TV news as recounting of ballot papers was hard and nervous. Tomorrow here in Ukraine the second round of president`s election will take place so I hope the answer who is the winner will be given much sooner.

I have advocated for a spit of the Republican Party for years (well before Trump). I still do.

My support for this is based on the fact that...

"The Democrats are taking this nation straight to hell at a dead run. Every now and then we elect enough Republicans to slow us down to a trot."

The Republicans will never be the saviors of the republic. They simply support it's destruction at a slower pace.

But if the Republicans are so split so as to need this to happen... the Democrats are doubly so.

Mascot? Who cares? Name? How about... the Tea Party? :) Tea being thrown into a harbor is the perfect metaphor for what needs to happen.

Tea being thrown into a harbor is the perfect metaphor for the needless waste that the Republican Party stands for. Yes, please; split up the Republican Party so that it will fall into the dustbin of history with the Whigs...

It's a sad day when certain ideologues cannot appreciate a historic act of defiance and protests against tyranny and unjust taxation.

You seem to just flail around attacking anything and everything that does not bow down to your liberal idols... with nary a thought beforehand.

And I say it's a sad day when certain ideologues evince a nostalgia for the 70's...
The 1770's!
You make an utterly false equivalence between a protest over "taxation without representation", and the "tyranny" of a duly elected government composed of representatives that imposes just taxation.
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. I know many of you ideologues want to try to get a civilized society on the cheap, but this ain't no banana republic. Yet...

Say, there already is a "Tea Party", isn't there?! I think it's kind of losing support over time, for reasons that should be evident. "Taxed enough already"....So your taxes were "lowered" by Trump - takes some of the wind out of your sails, doesn't it?

The way I read the article above, the need for the "Third Way" arises precisely from the wreckage that Trump has made of the existing Republican Party, with no room for "People who have some moral decency..." While I have little respect for people who reflexively champion "small government" with "nary a thought beforehand" as to what size makes sense for government to be; I have no respect AT ALL for fellow travelers of the idiot narcissist who is currently corroding all civilized norms as our POTUS.

Owl or eagle?! How about dodo! Or at least ostrich..

I'll take my whigs powdered, thank you..

Conservatism means to conserve morals and values to make healthy progress!

My recent article about the next President and the First man speaks to either a winning Democratic ticket or a continued Trump presidency. If there is any doubt that a silent majority helped defeat Hillary, place a presidential candidate that counters the American value that the silent majority enshrine and see.

So it's true: None of those out there who vote for Trump, or would vote for Trump (if they deigned to vote) or anyway just would vote for anyone rather than someone-other-than-Trump have anything to say about the future of the Republican party, "After the Love Is Gone"?