Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What all of these analysises miss--and what has the GOP salivating--is that Trump's ideas resonated with enough voters in spite of Donald Trump, not because of Donald Trump.

A polished Republican candidate could easily co-opt Trump's populism without the baggage that almost certainly cost Trump lots of votes.

At this point, it's fair to say Obama was a cult of personality instead of a new ideological paradigm. GOP is hoping that whatever votes are accounted for by a cult of personality in Trump's favor are outweighed by votes that could be netted with a similar populist platform in a more polished candidate.

Note, I don't think Dems can make the same populist platform work.

You might be correct but I think Trump has a similar personality cult as Obama did.
Also, many of the things that worked in his populism are really not nornal GOP fare: telling companies where to do business, anti-market rethoric, not touching Medicare/SS, giving everybody a magical cheaper and better healthplan, huge infrastructure/deficit spending for example. It's possible the GOP will be remade into some sort of Dixiecrat party, because basically that's what Trumpism is... maybe...if that happens then Democrats will become the pro-market pro-business pro-educated party.

But currently, a polished 'elite' GOP candidate would not have the same appeal IMO.
A lot of Trump's ideas are very much not GOP ideas. I am of the opinion that Trump won because he is Trumpy not despite being so.

That Obama and Trump ran largely as the great outsider hope is hard to challenge. Anyone struggling to grasp the Trump phenomenon needs to revisit Obama's 2008 campaign and the accompanying media coverage.

But PP should add that Obama became a very conventional Ivy League Democrat once he was in office. I don't think most of his 2008 voters would have voted for him if he told them explicitly that as President he'd favor the same bankers/criminals who caused the mortgage crisis and continue to grow the security state and deport more illegal immigrants than any other President. Similarly, while Trump talks a line that's attractive to voters disgusted with GOP elites, he might very well be another pro-biz Republican.

Anonymous wrote:NP... My relatives who were the biggest fan club of the Tea Party are now the biggest Trump fan club so there's at least some element of truth to the OP's premise.

Sure, most voters are utterly predictable. That same fact makes the small unpredictable minorities 'the deciders' and voters most worth discussing.

NP... My relatives who were the biggest fan club of the Tea Party are now the biggest Trump fan club so there's at least some element of truth to the OP's premise.

Anonymous wrote:What all of these analysises miss--and what has the GOP salivating--is that Trump's ideas resonated with enough voters in spite of Donald Trump, not because of Donald Trump.

A polished Republican candidate could easily co-opt Trump's populism without the baggage that almost certainly cost Trump lots of votes.

At this point, it's fair to say Obama was a cult of personality instead of a new ideological paradigm. GOP is hoping that whatever votes are accounted for by a cult of personality in Trump's favor are outweighed by votes that could be netted with a similar populist platform in a more polished candidate.

Note, I don't think Dems can make the same populist platform work.

You might be correct but I think Trump has a similar personality cult as Obama did.
Also, many of the things that worked in his populism are really not nornal GOP fare: telling companies where to do business, anti-market rethoric, not touching Medicare/SS, giving everybody a magical cheaper and better healthplan, huge infrastructure/deficit spending for example. It's possible the GOP will be remade into some sort of Dixiecrat party, because basically that's what Trumpism is... maybe...if that happens then Democrats will become the pro-market pro-business pro-educated party.

But currently, a polished 'elite' GOP candidate would not have the same appeal IMO.
A lot of Trump's ideas are very much not GOP ideas. I am of the opinion that Trump won because he is Trumpy not despite being so.