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Farewell, Tom Petty - Into the Great Wide Open

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Anymouse šŸŒ¹šŸ”šŸ˜·10/03/2017 10:21:11 am PDT

re: #408 The Ghost of a Flea

Trump is necessary to appease the populist, paranoid part of the base who donā€™t actually have policy goals, and need to be constantly stimulated with outrage and trolling.

After cultivating this trend for decades, theyā€™re now dependent on this group, and Trump is better at manipulating the former than they are. Trump has one card to playā€”blow up the GOP coalitionā€”but itā€™s a big one.

Not that theyā€™re actually winning by maintaining this arrangement. The ā€œsensibleā€ plutocrat types are being marginalized in favor of more aggressive hucksterism and even the occasional sincere reactionary demagogue.

One wonders how much the GOPā€™s big donors are going to put up with this (I understand the Kochs and a number of Texas high-dollar donors have had enough). They donā€™t get their tax cuts and business considerations when the GOP constantly focuses on religious and social issues.

I can see them saying ā€œHow bout it Libertarians?ā€ David Koch ran as a Libertarian VP candidateā€¦ .