Republicans really, really love Trump

Donald Trump’s rapid rise in the polls last year to become the leader of the race for the Republican nomination initially caused concern but not too much alarm within the party establishment. Then as his rise stalled and his poll numbers stagnated at around the 35% from January through March of this year, his plurality in the polls was shrugged off as his ceiling of support, his leadership position as an artifact of the field being crowded with 17 hopefuls that was splitting the anti-Trump vote and that as candidates dropped out, their supporters would slowly coalesce around one of the other candidates, preferably the party’s preferred candidates like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, and that Trump would slowly lose ground and then disappear.
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There is nothing like changing symbols to drive people crazy

If you had asked me which person’s face was on which US currency note, I would have been stumped. The only thing I was sure of was that it was some white guy from the distant past. Like most people, I am more concerned about the number that denotes the value rather than the ornamentation. But some people are sure upset about the decision to replace Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill, seeing it as yet another sign of that dreaded ‘political correctness’ that is ruining America.
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A nightmare ticket?

Ah spring, when during presidential election years political pundits’ fancy lightly turn to thoughts of possible running mates. Usually these speculations try to construct so-called ‘dream tickets’, combinations that its advocates think would either increase chances of victory due to providing balance or satisfy a felt need for ideological consistency if the presidential nominee’s credentials are suspect. Campaigns at this time float many names as trial balloons in order to gauge reactions as well as placate the various factions in their parties that they are being respected and included, and so these rumors should not be taken too seriously.
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Why do I feel revulsion when I see Ted Cruz’s face?

What puzzles (and bothers) me is why I have such an intense visceral dislike for Ted Cruz, even to just seeing his face. Judging people by their looks is a terrible thing, and although it is true that we do judge people almost instantaneously upon meeting them, it is not usually based on whether they are good looking or not, but by more subtle cues as to their likability, trustworthiness, and so on, that are hard to pin down.
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What’s going on in Brazil?

Brazil is a major player in the global economy. There is a great deal of political turmoil going on there right now with the president under impeachment proceedings. The US media is reporting on it as a corruption story, that the current president and her party are corrupt and that this move is a cleansing operation. But Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, says that while corruption is undoubtedly there, behind the scenes it is being used to remove a government that is supportive of the poor with one that the oligarchy wants in power.
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Why isn’t Sanders’s run for the presidency being hailed as historic?

On February 9, Bernie Sanders broke through a significant barrier in US political history.

“Bernie Sanders made history on Tuesday night as he became the first Jewish-American to win a presidential primary.

The milestone falls just eight days after Ted Cruz became the first Hispanic-American to win a presidential nominating contest with his win in the Iowa Caucuses.

Sanders is not the first Jewish-American to run for president. Both former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman mounted unsuccessful campaigns for the White House in 1996 and 2004, respectively. Further, the Republican nominee for president in 1964, Barry Goldwater, was of Jewish descent but was a practicing Episcopalian.

But Sanders is the first Jewish-American candidate, not to mention the first non-Christian candidate of any denomination, to win a state in a presidential primary.”

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