Where this will matter is the downballot races. Some Republicans won’t bother to show up. Others, the diehard Trumpites, will vote for Trump as President but not bother with the downballot races where the candidate has not supported Trump sufficiently. And some independents who will not vote for Trump will also be unwilling to vote for downballot Republicans who have been too supportive of Trump. These effects could swing a couple of Senate races, and even put the House in play. For instance, here in NH Sen. Kelly Ayotte actually said in a debate that she considered Trump a role model, a remark she is now running away from at relativistic speeds. Until last week that race was considered competitive, with some polls showing Ayotte ahead and others showing her challenger ahead. I suspect Ayotte is now toast: the independents will find her too supportive of Trump, and the Trumpites will find her not supportive enough.

Democratic narcissism is a little less crudely obvious than the Republican kind, and a lot less socially destructive, but it is there too. There seems to be a certain amount of built in narcissism in the biology of life. The built in belief that one’s genes are special, the crown of creation as it were, and that one should spread these genes throughout the cosmos.

Life blunders along. People like Trump and the tea party are dealing with the problems that arise when unrealistic beliefs crash into reality. Narcissistic beliefs that are useful in infancy are pathological later in life. Economic society exploits narcissism to sell products and encourages infantile feelings.

In summation: The protoplasm blunders on.

Tradition, I guess… People like to gauge body language… and maybe feel some feelings about things they like to feel feelings about… feely feelings…

Did Trump stop his slide? Maybe. It wasn’t pretty.

With the candidates ignoring the questions, why the blood hell even pretend to ask them questions?

I refuse to vote for either of them. Fuck them both in the eye with the same pointed stick.

I am grateful that the GOP has nominated this Orange Satan of Insecurities… he has single handedly sabotaged at every turn the news attempts to portray him as worthy of serious , adult consideration. Had another , a bit more self aware , sleazeball [I’m looking at YOU Ted Cruz] been running, the issue would very much still be in doubt.

By the way- anyone else get the feeling that much of the dismissal of Bernie had more to do with making sure HRC, with her long record as a favorite [after that black “Kenyan” fella of course] Tea Party target became a ratings winning nominee , than any real parsing out of policy positions and histories? Before you answer please check the record breaking viewership of the last Pres debate. I’ll wait.

Greg’s point regarding local politics is also tied IMHO to the for-profit -news industry. Vigilant, nuanced and researched journalism simply had [and has] no chance running against the O’Reilly -s, Limbaughs and Hannity-s…. not to mention the newer rise of Alt Right trolls. And that seems to enflame a seriously obsessive compulsively relentless group of right wingers at the local level….and I too, see no way out of this [ Although – on the national level, steering clear of another Scalia nominee IS significant].

And then the conservatives had the temerity to complain when Obama assumed the presidency and started wielding some of those extra powers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/

And yet there are people who whine about what an ineffective President Obama has been – of course he’s ineffective, he’s only the President. People who whine about how ineffective a President was without mentioning that it’s because power mainly rests with congress are just demonstrating their ignorance of the US system of government.

Ergo, S. Craig seems to be in the camp that the Republican Party will be destroyed by these recent revelations about the revulsions of Donald Trump, and that the voters will join the Republican Party leaders in convincing the electorate to vote against the Trumpkin Party candidates.

We shall see… But it will likely be moved more in that direction after tonight’s debate. And in the coming weeks as more evidence of Demonic Don’s “moral bankruptcy”, as you so put it, surfaces.

(Sorry about your agonizing cognitive dissonance, S. Craig. Must be really causing you a lot of mental stress…)

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/republicans-urge-replacing-man-who-hates-women-with-man-who-hates-women-and-gays