re: #85 ericblair

Right: because the other candidates in 2016 were Republicans, they couldn’t cooperate to get rid of Trump. Each one figured that someone else would put the knife in, and they themselves would swoop in to pick up Trump’s delegates. And so, of course, then nobody did. So the Fuck You I Got Mine party ended up with a nasty collective action problem, whoodathunkit.

And, I think that there are a significant minority of the GOP voters who have no interest in voting for anyone but Trump or Trump v2. That’s the unexpected surge in Trump votes in 2020 that was missed by polling: these nutjobs have probably never voted before, have no real political views, and no interest in small-d democratic politics, but want a King of the White People to keep everyone else in their places. So the pollers wouldn’t pick this up, since they look like non-voters. These nutjobs would have zero interest in a Cruz or Cotton or anyone else who smells like a politician, no matter what kind of show they put on. I’d be happy to see what research has actually shown about this.

Trump and Cruz accounted for 70% of the total delegates won, so obviously the image of his being a politician wasn’t hurting him too much. I even predicted way before Trump announced his candidacy that Cruz was the mark to beat because the party wanted an asshole for their nominee and Cruz best fit the bill. Odds are that had Trump not entered the race, it would have ended up coming down to Cruz and either Bush or Kasich. Without a Trump there to kneecap him with phrases like “low energy,” Jeb might have had more success winning over the suburban white vote. But Cruz was set to win the whole thing…until an even bigger egotistical bastard threw his toupee into the ring.