What is the future of the Republican Party?

Guy Chamberlin said:
There is one man who is most responsible for the election of Donald Trump.

Mark Burnett.

By the early 2000s, Trump Enterprises had so many breach of contract lawsuits against it that almost no bank in the world would loan it money. Trump had already squandered his $400 million inheritance on doomed vanity projects. By Trump's own admission, they were forced to work mostly with Russian and Eastern European interests, trading on the Trump name to oligarchs for America credibility. 

Mark Burnett was wildly successful as the producer of Survivor, and cast Donald Trump as the star of The Apprentice. Trump was famous and camera-savvy, and got to play America's most popular boss on TV. It was a win/win for both parties, and allowed Trump to burnish his star despite the glaring failures of his real world business interests. The highly scripted character they created for him is the man Americans thought they were electing. Trump's production deal with NBC also made him rich in a way he wasn't before The Apprentice. 

In 2015 there was an entirely believable storyline that Donald Trump had planned a short run in the GOP primaries to use as leverage in a salary dispute with NBC after Donald found out Christina Aguilera was making more money than he was on The Voice. 
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I think this is very fair, and I completely agree that if there's one person most responsible for projecting Trump as a respectable and smart businesses man, it's Mark Burnett.

But I do push back on anybody who wants to shift blame away from the millions of American voters who still cast votes for him. They are adults who can hear him say "grab em by the pu&&y" and make a choice. Those voters made a bad choice - it was OBVIOUS by the time the 2016 rolled around - and because huge swaths of the American public are stupid, we had a legitimate attempt at a treasonous attempt at undermining democracy. 

We absolutely should not let those voters off the hook for so easily being duped. They're a danger to the country for being unable to see the consequences of their choices and their continued support of anti-Democratic and authorian candidates. Just because they happen to be a large portion of the public does not change this. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
There is one man who is most responsible for the election of Donald Trump.

Mark Burnett.

By the early 2000s, Trump Enterprises had so many breach of contract lawsuits against it that almost no bank in the world would loan it money. Trump had already squandered his $400 million inheritance on doomed vanity projects. By Trump's own admission, they were forced to work mostly with Russian and Eastern European interests, trading on the Trump name to oligarchs for America credibility. 

Mark Burnett was wildly successful as the producer of Survivor, and cast Donald Trump as the star of The Apprentice. Trump was famous and camera-savvy, and got to play America's most popular boss on TV. It was a win/win for both parties, and allowed Trump to burnish his star despite the glaring failures of his real world business interests. The highly scripted character they created for him is the man Americans thought they were electing. Trump's production deal with NBC also made him rich in a way he wasn't before The Apprentice. 

In 2015 there was an entirely believable storyline that Donald Trump had planned a short run in the GOP primaries to use as leverage in a salary dispute with NBC after Donald found out Christina Aguilera was making more money than he was on The Voice. 
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The last time there was a writer's strike, one of the unintended consequences was that it indirectly led to The Apprentice getting renewed since they had no scripts to work with, which then led to Trump getting elected.

Good thing we learned from that and won't let it hap-- wait, what? Oh s#!t.

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
But I do push back on anybody who wants to shift blame away from the millions of American voters who still cast votes for him. They are adults who can hear him say "grab em by the pu&&y" and make a choice. Those voters made a bad choice - it was OBVIOUS by the time the 2016 rolled around - and because huge swaths of the American public are stupid, we had a legitimate attempt at a treasonous attempt at undermining democracy. 

We absolutely should not let those voters off the hook for so easily being duped. They're a danger to the country for being unable to see the consequences of their choices and their continued support of anti-Democratic and authorian candidates. Just because they happen to be a large portion of the public does not change this. 
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Saying that Americans are easily duped isn't letting them off the hook. It's the opposite, really. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
In 2015 there was an entirely believable storyline that Donald Trump had planned a short run in the GOP primaries to use as leverage in a salary dispute with NBC after Donald found out Christina Aguilera was making more money than he was on The Voice. 
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Yes, and the night he beat Hillary, he looked more shocked than anyone else - 'What have I gotten myself into' look on his face.  He knew he wasn't qualified.  He had read from a scrip he didn't believe in during the whole election cycle and now he was going to have to act it out.  His act was to the lowest common denominator and emotions - playing on fear - and that got him elected.  Yes, Mark Burnett, who also produced the miniseries The Bible, brought us this heathen.   

 
Lorewarn said:
The last time there was a writer's strike, one of the unintended consequences was that it indirectly led to The Apprentice getting renewed since they had no scripts to work with, which then led to Trump getting elected.

Good thing we learned from that and won't let it hap-- wait, what? Oh s#!t.
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The problem that lingers in the current WGA strike is that people think reality shows don't have writers and scripts. They do. Storylines are scripted. Dialogue is scripted. The writers are credited as writers on the show credits. But they fell outside WGA rules and protections because the producers wanted it that way and the WGA had too many other demands to go to the mat for reality show writers. 

Drew Barrymore is now taking heat for re-starting her talk show during the strike. She thinks she can avoid crossing both WGA and SAG lines, but she really can't. 

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
The problem that lingers in the current WGA strike is that people think reality shows don't have writers and scripts. They do. Storylines are scripted. Dialogue is scripted. The writers are credited as writers on the show credits. But they fell outside WGA rules and protections because the producers wanted it that way and the WGA had too many other demands to go to the mat for reality show writers. 

Drew Barrymore is now taking heat for re-starting her talk show during the strike. She thinks she can avoid crossing both WGA and SAG lines, but she really can't. 
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Come on....you're telling me The Bachelorette is scripted?

Now I'm going to have to go home and crawl under a blanket and reassess my life.

 
Whelp, one of the last Republicans who had with at least a hint of principles and fidelity to the constitution is hanging it up.  Disagree with his policy positions all you want but it can get worse.  Example?  The overwhelming majority of Republicans remaining in Congress.  Life in an authoritarian society is going to be a blast.  


“A very large portion of my party,” he told me one day, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” He’d realized this only recently, he said. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—­people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing the rot on the right to fester?"

 
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Scarlet said:
Whelp, one of the last Republicans who had with at least a hint of principles and fidelity to the constitution is hanging it up.  Disagree with his policy positions all you want but it can get worse.  Example?  The overwhelming majority of Republicans remaining in Congress.  Life in an authoritarian society is going to be a blast.  


“A very large portion of my party,” he told me one day, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” He’d realized this only recently, he said. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—­people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing the rot on the right to fester?"
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This is sort of hilarious. He talks about liking the actual crazies who believe in what they're saying, singling out Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson who will believe almost any conspiracy theory.

Then he went over the Republicans who just say anything in public even if they don't believe it. Just appealing to the gullible morons that make up the Republican base. He specifically mentions Josh Hawley and how he will never respect J.D. Vance. It's all so obvious that these people are completely unserious unless you're part of the MAGA base who eats this stuff up.

 
Scarlet said:
Whelp, one of the last Republicans who had with at least a hint of principles and fidelity to the constitution is hanging it up.  Disagree with his policy positions all you want but it can get worse.  Example?  The overwhelming majority of Republicans remaining in Congress.  Life in an authoritarian society is going to be a blast.  


“A very large portion of my party,” he told me one day, “really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” He’d realized this only recently, he said. We were a few months removed from an attempted coup instigated by Republican leaders, and he was wrestling with some difficult questions. Was the authoritarian element of the GOP a product of President Trump, or had it always been there, just waiting to be activated by a sufficiently shameless demagogue? And what role had the members of the mainstream establishment—­people like him, the reasonable Republicans—played in allowing the rot on the right to fester?"
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When you go into politics believing in the constitution and your party all of a sudden thinks it’s a pile of trash….we’ll, then….you shouldn’t represent them anymore. 

 
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