{"id":700,"date":"2015-09-19T09:44:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T00:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/?p=700"},"modified":"2017-07-06T19:42:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T10:42:03","slug":"peak-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/peak-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Peak Trump!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[brought back from the archives at ctlaw’s “request.”]<\/em>
\nI dare say we’ve reached peak Trump. \u00a0He will continue to be a factor, but will no longer dominate. \u00a0I think within two weeks he’ll be contesting second place.
\n<\/p>\n

EDIT October 8, 2015: When I wrote this, Trump had started a downward slide along with Carson, with the change benefiting Fiorina\u00a0and Rubio. \u00a0Since then, almost nothing has changed. \u00a0So my two weeks prediction is a total bust. \u00a0And Boehner announced a resignation that certainly took me by surprise. \u00a0You know the anger runs deep when even I can’t see the bottom.<\/p>\n

Just a hunch. \u00a0He his served a very useful purpose and will continue to do so. \u00a0Those who wish to assign to him this year\u2019s woes would be well to remember 2008 and 2012, which were not exactly bell-ringers for conservatives. \u00a0I do not care whether my gun was made by conservatives or union progressives, so long as it fires reliably. I have always viewed Trump as a means to an end with an acceptable risk of becoming the end in itself. After all, plan A keeps failing and we are out of time.<\/p>\n

Trump has shaken up the race by being unpredictable and uncontrollable. I do not expect the GOP to \u201clearn\u201d the lesson of Trump any more than I expect them to suddenly regret the last fifteen years. Not gonna happen. It\u2019s not as though they don\u2019t understand\u2013 they disagree with us and will gladly squash us to preserve their chosen state of affairs.<\/p>\n

The value of Trump is not to teach the GOP a lesson \u2014 it is beyond redemption in and of itself \u2014 but to illuminate its failure. There is no meaningful victory through GOP victories. Granting them anything is just putting rifles in the hands of cowards \u2014 they will surrender well-armed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump Spring\u201d may be out of gas, and if so, I can accept that. Nothing lasts forever. As Trump burns down (if that is to happen soon, if at all), we will see a more even mixing of the other candidates.<\/p>\n

Look at the departure of Rick Perry \u2014 who would have though that he would be the first to drop? I don\u2019t think that would have happened without Trump starving out the weak. My guess is that some who are now coasting, running on empty, would have made it much further if not for Trump. Anything can happen \u2014 Newt was dead three times in 2012, and kept coming back. I wrote a post back then calling him Rasputin, as he just could not be killed. But in general, I think that Trump\u2019s influence has been to make the race a far more hostile environment early on, forcing tough decisions within the field.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t put my finger on it. It\u2019s just a hunch.<\/p>\n

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[brought back from the archives at ctlaw’s “request.”]<\/em>
I dare say we’ve reached peak Trump. \u00a0He will continue to be a factor, but will no longer dominate. \u00a0I think within two weeks he’ll be contesting second place.<\/p>\n

<\/i> <\/a> <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3512,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balldiamondball.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}