Opinion of TJ in Cleve

[Vosem]

One of the very best posters we have, highly informed, extremely intelligent, civil, an excellent writer, who brings a valuable perspective to this particular den of largely secular oriented kids.

I have lots of points of disagreement with TJ, gay marriage being just one of them, but any poster who is informed, coherent, respectful, interesting, and brings in a different perspective is FF by me.

EDIT: And Ohioan!

[Vosem]

TJ's brand of Republicanism is the type of brand that spiraled out of control and gave us the more annoying elements of the Trump movement. I don't think he gets a pass for being a "reasonable Republican" when he represents politically the worst leftovers of the Bush decade.

I'm kinda curious what this post could possibly be about

I think he's trying to say neocons and/or socons screwed up in office, which combined with Obama-liberalism made Trumpism possible?

Yes. The Trump movement is largely a reaction among Republicans to people like Bobby Jindal, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, etc, spoon feeding us this same toxic combination of social and neo-conservatism/"Reaganism" garbage year after year. People are so sick and tired of these kind of out of touch Republicans (almost all of whom are in reality no more right-wing than, say, Jeb Bush or John Kasich), and if the candidate most outspokenly and directly in opposition to that happens to be a borderline racist/probable rapist/philandering, orange skinned, loud mouthed, arrogant jackass mascot for a shadowy real estate conglomerate with exaggerated profits that he barely runs, then so be it.

The Trump movement isn't about Trump. Yes, it is probably true that only a man like Donald Trump could have been able to so expertly tap into that wellspring of disillusionment, but these "deplorables" that TJ in Cleve so detests are in reality the people who until now have carried his outdated, collectivist, bigoted vision of the world on his shoulders just like Atlas carried the world on his.

If Atlas were to shrug, as Ayn Rand wrote, then the world would fall apart. The Trump movement is Atlas, and we're shrugging off TJ, Ted Cruz, my grandma's brother-in-law, the GOP staffers and most of my former campaign friends. We're not going to toil for their vision of the world anymore. Now its their turn to carry us. I don't view any Johnson or Clinton supporters with any contempt. I understand their position. But every #NeverTrump Republican, the people who once called Ron Paul a terrorist sympathizer, the people who declared Gary Johnson the next Ralph Nader in 2012, only to hijack his candidacy four years later, destroy it, and then get on the McMullin bandwagon-these people are unforgivable. These people are the real Republican deplorables.

Do hope you realize that your Trumpist "movement" has totally failed to penetrate congressional primaries in its prime, it's disproportionately old, and that Cruz, Rubio, and their ilk will still be around decades after the Trump run has mostly been forgotten outside of weird political history forums