Jennifer Rubin is supposed to be the conservative columnist at the Washington Post but she finds Trump as dangerous and repulsive as her liberal colleagues.
In her column, she says that most Americans do not agree with Trump. And she points out that the Republican party is solidly behind him but its numbers are shrinking.
She cites poll numbers showing that most Americans dislike Trump and his policies:
These are numbers from the latest Quinnipiac poll:
Only 31 percent of American voters like President Donald Trump as a person, while 59 percent dislike him, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released [Tuesday]. … By a smaller 54 – 43 percent margin, American voters dislike President Trump’s policies.
Voters disapprove 54 – 41 percent of the job Trump is doing as president, including 48 percent who disapprove strongly. Another 30 percent approve strongly. The Trump Administration is not doing enough to help middle class Americans, voters say 58 – 38 percent.
But she points out that Republicans are very happy with Trump. The good news is that only 26% of Americans identify as Republicans.
Republicans operate in a different political universe. They approve of his job performance (83 percent) and actually like him (66 percent) — which makes one seriously question what attributes they find so attractive. (His vulgarity? His racism? His greed?) In the minds of Republicans, he is doing enough for the middle class (80 percent/16 percent) and the media is the “enemy of the people” (51 percent/36 percent). Sixty-eight percent of Republicans say he is tough enough on Russia, while 55 percent say Mueller is not conducting a fair investigation. The GOP has been thoroughly Trumpized and now resembles the right-wing, nativist parties of Europe.
This split in opinion between Republicans and everyone else is not a sustainable situation for a national party. Pew Research reported this year that “37% of registered voters identified as independents, 33% as Democrats and 26% as Republicans. … The 8-percentage-point Democratic advantage in leaned partisan identification is wider than at any point since 2009, and a statistically significant shift since 2016.” You cannot win national elections with a narrow base of support. (Quinnipiac’s pollster aptly describes Trump’s political situation: “The base is hanging in and the rest aren’t buying in.”)
My hope is that every single Republican up for election or re-election this fall is defeated. I hope the Democrats sweep the House and capture every Senate seat that is up for a vote.
That is the only way to stop the damage this horrible, ignorant, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic man is wreaking on the nation and its people.
It would also free the few remaining elected officials who are Republicans to begin to rebuild their party and reclaim its lost principles of fiscal responsibility, probity in international affairs, and moderation in social issues, which Trump has trashed and abandoned.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“My hope is that every single Republican up for election or re-election this fall is defeated. I hope the Democrats sweep the House and capture every Senate seat that is up for a vote.”
Yes, I agree totally, that is my hope. With Trump, we have seen so many far right wing nuts, neo-Nazis, fascists, chauvinists, xenophobes and racists come out from under their rocks and claim their 15 minutes of infamy, boldly, shamelessly and very much in your face.
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Dump is a BULLY man-boy who is INCAPABLE of leading, and is a treasonous liar. Dump is Putin’s puppet, because Dump needs Putin’s money. Dump is not as rich as he seems.
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I hope that the recent “White nationalist” march in Wash DC where, after last year’s crazy fanaticism, ONLY 25 MARCHERS showed up is an indicator of exactly this point. The much, much larger anti-White Nationalist protest which organized itself and simultaneously marched in DC suggests that those who would call for cultural supremacy are clearly outnumbered.
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Thanks Diane. Best news I’ve heard all day.
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Roughly 31% of Americans identify as Democrats. In other words, both parties best be worried about their continued existence and start figuring out how to speak to rest of us.
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Now that would certainly be a sea change.
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37% Independent voters is bad news for Republicans and Democrats. Neither party is doing well matching what voters want. We need a better 3rd party to shake things up and maybe knock out the Republicans. The Republican party has become too right-wing with it’s refusal to acknowledge environmental problems and social change, and refusal to deal with immigration.
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Such a bad idea. People like Democratic ideas (e.g. mandating that large corporations include workers on their boards) when they’re explained to them. It’s just that nobody’s explaining them to them! Our schools aren’t, for the most part. The DNC is not –partly because they don’t grasp the enormity of the masses’ knowledge deficit and the need for remedial adult education. Readers of this blog, especially teachers: if you want to do something meaningful to save democracy, invent a curriculum that teaches people about why YOU’RE a Democrat and go door-to-door and teach it to people. A five minute spiel. This would bring light where there is now only darkness.
I’m beginning to think adult education could be the salvation of our democracy.
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I doubt that it would be accurate to assume that the 37% of voters who now identify as independent represent a solid voting block. I’m guessing that they represent people from a fairly wide political spectrum who are disaffected for one reason or another from either the Republican or Democrat parties. All indications are that the Democrats are likely to pick up more votes in order to neutralize Trump unless we shoot ourselves in the foot looking for ideological purity.
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“Dumbocrats”
If Democrats were Democrats
They’d prolly always win
But Democrats are Dumbocrats
With tendency to spin
They sacrifice ideals
For money and for power
And make their backroom deals
Which turns the voters sour
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I’m not holding my breath. Democrats are good at snapping defeat from the jaws of victory. HRC was the perfect example. If the Dems do not forcefully stand against his policies etc., they just may fail to capture the House. Why aren’t Dems sounding out everyday Trump’s request for funding of the “wall” when he ran on Mexico paying for it? Why aren’t Dems calling everyday for Trump to release his tax returns? Trump/Republicans bring hammers to a fight and Democrats bring nails. Pathetic.
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I also think Democrats need to become stealth fighters. They should start by working to unite the party and presenting candidates that support issues that the working class cares about. Despite their minority status Republicans represent the more affluent and some of the white working class that are much more tribal, and they show up to vote.
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This presidency represents the death rattle of a great deal of ugliness.
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Or, rather, “This presidency IS the death rattle of much ugliness.”
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Not the presidency, the current president.
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I said “This presidency”
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“You cannot win national elections with a narrow base of support.”
G. W. Bush won the Presidency without the popular vote and so did Trump. There were three previous presidents that also won without support from the majority of voters.
There is something very suspicious here. Only five presidents in US history have been elected without the popular vote.
Barack Obama was the nation’s 44th president but in reality, there have only been 43 presidents. Grover Cleveland is counted twice as our 22nd and 24th president because he was elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
The United States presidential election of 1789 was the first presidential election in the United States of America.
1824: John Quincy Adams
1876: Rutherford B. Hayes
1888: Benjamin Harrison
2000: George W. Bush
2016: Donald Trump
Before 2000, the odds of winning a presidential election through the Electoral College after losing the popular vote was once every 70 years but in the last sixteen years, it has happened twice.
To me, this is a signal that something is wrong, seriously wrong … suspicious and malicious.
Has the GOP, Russia and the Alt-Right’s lying, conspiracy theory generating media machine figured out how the manipulate presidential elections in the U.S.?
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If this is the best they can do, Democrats will not win. Give people something that will make their lives better. This inane squabbling won’t help.
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Democrats are betting that liberal anger at President Trump will be enough to carry them to victory in the 2018 midterm elections after a prolonged debate about whether the party needs to instead run on a unified set of principles and proposed policy solutions.
The primary elections have revealed that Democrats disagree on “Medicare for all.” They can’t decide whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished, reformed or left alone. There is debate over whether embracing the democratic socialism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is tacking too hard to the left or the key to unlocking grass-roots energy. Democrats are split on whether Trump should be impeached, and divided over whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should lead the party going forward.
The disagreements are in part driven by the party’s commitment to racial and gender diversity, as well as a glaring generational divide. In addition, many Democrats are running for seats in states or districts that Trump won in 2016, which will require some compromise and tradeoffs from candidates. And anticipating a large field of potential aspirants in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, the most electrifying platform at the moment for the party remains antipathy for the 45th president.
As such, Democrats are adopting a “do no harm” strategy that banks on the midterm elections being a referendum on Trump, The New York Times reports.
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When has government ever functioned without compromise both within a party and across the aisle? Does anyone here really know what the full job of Immigration and Customs Enforcement entails? I don’t although I do know it is more than chasing illegal immigrants. I have a feeling that we can all agree that the treatment of illegal immigrants has been abysmal. Before heartfelt cries for the abolition of ICE, we might want to make sure we know what we are abolishing. The same with minimum wage regulations. Knowing that economic conditions vary widely across the country, can small businesses in every state and locality support a $15.00 minimum wage? I really don’t know. I do know that it is not a threat but a reality that some small businesses will find themselves cutting workers and/or hours just to stay in business at a time when we really should be doing everything we can to encourage small businesses over corporate giants. I have not researched these questions, so I am just brainstorming possible concerns. We all need to try to educate ourselves beyond black or white stances that in my case at least would be based on very little research or any thorough examination of the issues. I know what my heart says is right, but my heart isn’t the most rational of arbiters. Governing a nation requires a bit more than that.
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To refresh readers’ memories: only 37% of eligible voters cast ballots in the last mid-term election, and only 42% cast ballots in the 2010 election that undercut President Obama for the last six years of his presidency. If the Democrats hope to prevail in 2018 they need to motivate voters to turn out.
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[Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin] finds Trump as dangerous and repulsive as her liberal colleagues.”
That’s probablt pretty darned dangerous and repulsive, given how she undoubtedly feels about her liberal colleagues!
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Trump is blustering to get his way. It isn’t working.
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‘3 Reasons Trump’s Trade Wars Are Dumb and Dangerous’ by Robert Reich
Donald Trump has gotten America into a trade war with all our major trading partners. He’s put tariffs, which are essentially taxes, on what they sell to us. And they’ve retaliated by putting tariffs on what we sell to them.
Trump’s trade war is dumb and dangerous for 3 reasons:…
Trade wars may make Trump feel tough, because he loves tests of his dominance. But they hurt average working people.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/3-reasons-trumps-trade-wars-are-dumb-and-dangerous/
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So the big head of ArcelorMittal says Trump tariffs are raising profits but our local people in Indiana are protesting because ArcelorMittal wants to cut health insurance. This makes sense only in Trumpland. Wonder if all those protesting voted for the Orange Lunatic.
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Steel giant ArcelorMittal says Trump tariffs are raising profits;
For Mittal, the White House’s tariffs on steel imported into the United States have driven up prices, which, along with strong global demand, have delivered his company’s best results since 2011.
https://www.bendbulletin.com/business/6422485-151/steel-giant-arcelormittal-says-trump-tariffs-are-raising
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U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal both propose cutting health care benefits
[NWI Times] U.S. Steel, ArcelorMittal both propose cutting health care benefits
ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel collectively made more than $2.1 billion in profit last quarter, when steel prices hovered over a robust $900 a ton and tariffs slowed the near-record tide of cheap imports.
U.S. Steel announced Thursday it would invest $750 million in Gary Works, and ArcelorMittal said earlier in the week it would spend $330 million to expand a plant in Brazil.
But the steelmakers are saying health insurance costs for U.S. employees and retirees are too high.
U.S. Steel proposed cutting retiree health care benefits earlier this week, the United Steelworkers union said in an update to members. And ArcelorMittal continued to push for health care cuts that could end up costing Northwest Indiana families up to $8,000 per year in out-of-pocket costs…
https://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/u-s-steel-arcelormittal-both-propose-cutting-health-care-benefits/article_6a2e052a-9a63-5e79-b463-ae628890e63d.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
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Just what we need, more money from the 1% making sure Congress doesn’t vote for anything that helps average people.
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Trump Tax Cut Unlocks Millions for a Republican Election Blitz…NYT
By JIM TANKERSLEY and MICHAEL TACKETT
Republicans may be struggling to sell their $1.5 trillion tax cut to voters, but the law has helped unleash tens of millions from donors who benefited handsomely from it.
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I found this “class warfare” angle was working a bit with the Trump supporter I was talking to yesterday. They never hear this kind of stuff on Fox News. Could be wedge.
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Who needs clean air. The Orange Ignoramus is doing a great job of making Americans sick. Can the wealthy go outside and not breath?
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As Trump Dismantles Clean Air Rules, an Industry Lawyer Delivers for Ex-Clients
Posted by Date: August 19, 2018in: Political News, Politics
…The end result is that the ethics rules generally allow Mr. Wehrum to help oversee the drafting of policies that broadly benefit the industries or clients he represented in recent years….
The agency has also agreed to no longer “second guess” — the exact words used in the industry memo and in the E.P.A. policy change that followed shortly after Mr. Wehrum arrived — air pollution projections by power plants and refineries. The move provoked intense protests among Mr. Wehrum’s colleagues at the E.P.A. as it potentially undermines pending enforcement cases, including one prominent case involving DTE Energy of Michigan, a longtime client of Mr. Wehrum’s former law firm, Hunton Andrews Kurth.
A second priority on Mr. Wehrum’s industry presentation called for a revision of the E.P.A.’s “project aggregation” policy, which could allow companies to perhaps avoid expensive upgrades to pollution control equipment by not forcing them to consider hazardous air emissions from other nearby factories they own. Such a revision is now underway, Mr. Wehrum announced in April.
A third priority was taken care of by the E.P.A.’s March announcement revising the “project netting” system the agency uses to evaluate anticipated increases in air pollution that might result from renovations and expansions of factories and power plants. Mr. Wehrum, as an E.P.A. official, called the revision “a common-sense interpretation” of the rules. He did not mention that this was the same change he had advocated as a petrochemical industry lawyer in the memo sent late last year….
http://loyalchristian.com/as-trump-dismantles-clean-air-rules-an-industry-lawyer-delivers-for-ex-clients/
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Looks like poor Donnie is freaking out. Who in the called to complain about the NYT’s phony story? Donnie is delusional.
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HuffPost: His outburst came the day after The New York Times reported that McGahn is extensively cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible links between Trump’s campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the president has obstructed justice. McGahn, according to the Times story, has voluntarily provided Mueller’s team a wealth of information about Trump’s behavior, beyond what might be expected from someone in his position.
Any suggestion that McGahn has turned on him is false, Trump insisted on Sunday.
″In fact it is just the opposite,” he tweeted. “This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!”
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Some members of the media are very Angry at the Fake Story in the New York Times. They actually called to complain and apologize – a big step forward. From the day I announced, the Times has been Fake News, and with their disgusting new Board Member, it will only get worse!
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