Agree !

Easy hoss.

Politics are directly intertwined with world history. It is directly responsible for how we live our everyday lives. I guess things like that aren't really important to you? Those things are "bs"? Get real. Calling stray cat a sewer rat is pretty classless. I don't personally know the guy but from his posts I can tell he is a stand up guy. No sense in crap like that..

I'm 100% for TED CRUZ!

I think the word I'm looking for is "incorrigible".

That was exactly my point.

The people voted for a Promise of Hope and Change...which Obama said would be fundamental change in the country and which is exactly what Obama accomplished. He has been wildly successful in pushing through his Progressive Movement ideals and agenda, both through conventional means and unconstitutional means. He has been extremely effective at changing the narrative.

For a mass of Democrat, Independent and Moderate Swing voters to be so ignorant on the resulting damage of such Hope and Change to elect Obama not once but twice COMBINED with the continuation of Conservative, Moderates in allowing RINOs to run the GOP and get reelected time after time after time-----those things show that the voting populace is large enough and stupid enough to let most anything happen.

That is why the Obama comparison is valid in talking about Trump mania. It isn't that Obama was unsuccessful in getting accomplished what he wanted to accomplish. It is that the American public voted for speech and oration and had no concept of what Obama was really trying to do and had no clue of the damaging impact of changes that were coming.

Trump has garnered his support in almost the same way, but on the other end of the political fervor spectrum. Enough people are so sick and tired of Obama and his administrations antics, so sick and tired of the Progressive Democrat machine, so sick and tired of weak GOP leadership that they are willing to abandon Principles and vote for the loudmouth with his speeches, buzzwords, phrases and orations. I don't think they have fully understood what is at stake in one way. Sure they want Obama gone and to avoid Hillary or Berney....fair enough. But they haven't looked deep enough to understand what they WILL GET with Trump.

Obama voters did the same thing. They were sick of Bush and the GOP enough that they were mesmerized by the slick, articulate oration of Hope and Change. Talk without substance. They were progressively indoctrinated enough to buy his talk without understanding the consequences. Obama won and then he was able to push through his plans...plans that were never articulated in the campaign. But anyone with half a brain could understand what was coming.

Now with Trump, it is all about anger and frustration....far too many Trump voters looking for a cure all from a bombastic speaker who thumbs his nose at anyone. They don't care about his principles...they don't care about his morals or ethics...they only want to win at all costs. This will fix the problem they assume. Far too many haven't looked deeply enough into the issues. Trumps entire campaign is about Hope and Change...just in the opposite direction of Obama...but there is no substance. We have no clue of how he is going to implement anything or how his Presidency will impact America--except for his speeches.

Obama and Trump share many characteristics:
Loud
Arrogant
Elitist
Soundbites over Substance
Lack of Honor and Virtue and Goodness (anyone who supports the Democrats and their DNC platform in my book is without Honor, Virtue and Goodness because of what the platform stands for)

The similarities are staggering. And this is relevant because Trump is garnering mass support and it is growing and growing. Obama did the same thing going into 2008. 100% emotional reactions by the voting public are the key to this election. And that is a very sad state of affairs.

Gonna try to make a visual illustration that might help some understand my beef with Trump. By the way, I agree word-for-word with Straycat above, very well said sir!

Picture a cross (up/down/left/right). In the beginning of our nation we were at the bottom of the cross (all the way "down"), at the foundation you might say. We were at the MOST constitutional point in our history. In my paradigm, this is political perfection for America.

Over the years we moved "up", away from the foundation, yet for the most part not too far "left" or "right". However, in the last 8 years we have moved radically to the "left". Now, the kneejerk thought would be we need to move radically to the "right" and over-correct you might say. Although I do not believe Trump is a genuine, far-right conservative, he is TALKING in those words and the low information masses are eatin' it up. But it's NOT the answer, it's not the fix!

The fix is to go back "down", we absolutely must begin a swift and thorough retreat back to the constitution. Trump is an ideological loose-canon, he isn't constitutional minded. The ideal fit for that movement was Rand Paul, but strangely to me, conservatives are inexplicably against these Tea Party "Libertarian" guys. I've been saying it, Rubio (for example) is not Republican, he's quite Libertarian in most of his spoken ideals. He has me eating from his hand. Cruz is some combination...he speaks a lot about constitutionality, but also espouses a lot of very stern moral authoritarianism (like a Republican). So it confuses me when you guys call Rubio the establishment pick, because based on ideals, Cruz is WAAAAAY more "establishment". I think he's just harder to get along with, whereas Rubio isn't.

After listening to the debate last night on my way to OK, Trump scares me worse than Hillary.

At first, with all the players involved, I thought this election was kind of interesting, even comical at times. Now with the reality of the situation playing out, I'm fearful for our country and our future as a nation.

It's boiling down to two choices: Hitler and Mussolini.

And it should have for any reasonable person.

Say what you want, it doesn't really matter. I will vote Republican in the general no matter who's running...period.

Go Ben!!

I've watched and studied politics for quite a few years now and I'll have to say I'm seeing something I've never seen before. I know since Reagan there have been complaints that the RNC hasn't given us true conservative candidates and we're left to vote for the lesser of two evils. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was John McCain. I voted for him because I despised Obama, but I swore I would never cast my vote for another establishment RNC hack. I kept that promise and voted third party last election and have written in votes against Shelby and Bradley Byrne. I see Karl Rove ranting and raving now that if Trump wins the nomination, he'll cost us the Presidential election in November, but did his last two annointed ones win us the White House?

I have no idea if Trump would make a good president or not, but if this election does nothing else, it's time for the current leadership in the Republican Party to be purged. Instead of addressing voter frustration, all we're getting is back room meetings trying to figure out how they can get the same cookie cutter candidate they've been offering up over the last few election cycles, even if their man didn't get the most votes to be nominated. Unfortunately, both parties have rigged the system so the ruling elites are still making fortunes while the voters and taxpayers end up being the loser no matter who wins on election day.

Great Post I agree 100%

I'd like to see some proof of that...the last I looked his campaign had only received around 50% of their money from big donors, the rest had come from small donations from average folks like you and me. Rubio's donations at the time I looked were 98% from big donors. So where did you get your info? It's been a few months since I checked it out but I have a hard time believing that it has changed that much in a short time...

That certainly doesn't say that Cruz is getting more money from the big donors and lobbyists than others. Which in fact isn't true. He has raised more in total donations, but the vast majority of Cruz's have come from small donations while most of Rubio's have come from larger donations. You can bet the inside cronies aren't supporting Cruz he is the one who has exposed them. Yes he has recieved large donations from plenty of people, mostly from Texas (which is understandable). Many of them are principled folks who want to support a principled man. But again, most of Cruz's donations are coming from average working folks like us.

Cruz Summary
Contributions
Individual Icon Individual $54,070,645
PAC Icon PAC $58,452
Party Icon Party $0
Candidate Icon Candidate $0
Federal Funds $0
Transfers-In $250,013
Disbursements $40,740,979
Cash On Hand $13,645,419
Size of Contributions
$200 and Under $33,604,947
$200.01 - $499 $3,566,301
$500 - $999 $2,673,718
$1000 - $1999 $4,011,575
$2000 and Over $14,127,268

Rubio Summary
Contributions
Individual Icon Individual $32,371,175
PAC Icon PAC $24,634
Party Icon Party $102
Candidate Icon Candidate $0
Federal Funds $0
Transfers-In $182,152
Disbursements $31,598,554
Cash On Hand $5,055,407
Size of Contributions
$200 and Under $8,675,383
$200.01 - $499 $1,429,500
$500 - $999 $1,875,414
$1000 - $1999 $4,938,184
$2000 and Over $17,347,747



http://www.fec.gov/disclosurep/pnational.do

If the Trump supporters think that Trump is not taking money from the big guys you are really naive. The way the campaign laws are written in our country, they can take money after an election and count it back to the campaign. He is doing nothing more than loaning money to his campaign. He then stands on the big stage and proclaims that he is not taking any money from anybody and therefore you can trust him because he owes no favors. Stand back and watch, once the election is over and nobody is looking, the contributions will come flowing in that will more than exceed any money he has spent, and he will take every penny of it....I'm not a betting man, but if I were I would wager on this one. So the only difference between him and the rest of them is that he will be taking his money on the back end and not the front end...