What About The Brand?

[Divinity]

Ben Carson isn't stupid.  He's an opportunist who used to the system to his advantage.  There was no room for him in the Dem gang so he took advantage of an opportunity in the Repub gang.  That's being clever if you want to get ahead in politics and get a piece of the pie.

Ben Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist.  So yeah, he's stupid.

[The Grand Nudger]

@Wyrd
Right, and all of that is taken as a given in this thread.  I'm not wondering why he won over some specific demo...that was "economic anxiety" iirc.  I'm wondering where the demo that still believes in the conservative messaging that failed last election cycle is, and what they're up to these days. What it looks like to be a "real conservative" in the party and age of trumpism.

[henryp]

Trump Brand: Not bad enough Khemikal would vote for Hillary Clinton.

[The Grand Nudger]

That's not how I make any other decision, so ofc not.  Not that it matters in context of the thread.

[Whateverist]

@Whatevs
I understand that, but I was hoping to steer this thread more towards the principled stand for those items listed and who was still making it...rather than a list of all of the ways that message is used to subvert or take advantage of whatever portion of the base wants those things to be true of the republican party.

We've got plenty of threads about craven assholes shamelessly fleecing the sheep.  This one aint about them..or..at least, I hope there's still an alternative to that.

I guess I'm having a thick moment but I really don't understand the question.  How will they brand/sell positions they in fact do not seem to stand for?  Is there somehow a way to go with this other than to point out the illegitimacy of any such claim?

[The Grand Nudger]

OFC there is.  A person who thinks that any of those items were the right way to go can point out politicians and organizations swimming against the tide and trying to make them so.

[Whateverist]

You could probably say the same about the current president.  In any case, going back to primaries the entire republican establishment was aligned against what they saw as a clown that would damage the party and country.  Even after he won the nomination many people who voted for him considered him the "lesser of two evils"..... again clearly indicating a rift between his platform and candidacy and the long running establishment message.  

So, who are the establishment republicans, where are they running, and how are they distancing themselves from whatever rift trump as a candidate and trumpism as an ideology presented then and now?

People voted for Trump because he offered solutions to a couple of main issues that most voters are concerned about.  And he was more appealing to the voters in the Rust Belt States than Lying Crooked Hillary was.  That gave him the margin of victory.  None of the other Repub candidates addressed the issues that the voters were concerned about so they all lost to him.  Trump may not be a real Repub but that's not what the voters in 30 States are concerned about.

*my bold*

Where "addressed the issues" = mirrored their sentiments, worked them up into a lather about their shared outrage and then promised vindictive remedies - like locking up his political rival because that is such an American thing to do.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Ben Carson isn't stupid.  He's an opportunist who used to the system to his advantage.  There was no room for him in the Dem gang so he took advantage of an opportunity in the Repub gang.  That's being clever if you want to get ahead in politics and get a piece of the pie.

Ben Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist.  So yeah, he's stupid.

That can be said about anyone who believes in a magic zombie.