Assured? The polls tell us he's losing and losing big. Could the polls be wrong - keep the hope alive, I guess. You thought wrong. Basically no one, other than those that deny basic facts like you are doing here, thought he would lose the governor race.
Or, like most politicians from today's right as we have all witnessed, would put their values beneath that of the party, even if it's Trumpism. It also tells us if Kemp had had the 'legal' path toward overturning the election, he would.
I dunno man, presidential campaigns are a different breed. Pre-Iowa staff shakeups and donation shortfalls are usually a bad sign regardless of who is running. Those are the exact issues that caused Democrats like Kamala Harris and Beto O'Rourke to drop out before a single vote was cast in 2020.
I don't think DeSantis beats Trump...but if Trump goes to jail...all bets might be off. Would not underestimate Vivek in that case, though. He is really smart.
Most of my doubt about Vivek's chances in a GOP primary center around: Low name recognition outside of Twitter (reminds me of Andrew Yang) His Hindu faith. I think a lot of evangelicals would not support him because of this alone. He can speak to their faith, value it, etc. but they are looking for a true believer (or, in the case of Trump, somebody who "fights" for them and pretends to be one of them) who will truly wage a "holy war" on their behalf. They aren't rational, but they're influential.
Vivek is going to say all of the right things. If SCWs can get past trump's lack of faith in any religion, ...
I don't think this is the case. We all know Trump isn't religious and makes a mockery out of evangelicals' beliefs. But, he made all of the right gestures that gave them permission to support him: saying the Bible was his "second favorite" book, allowing himself to have hands put on him, speaking at Liberty, etc. They called him a "baby Christian" to excuse his profound immorality. We all knew it was a farce, but his "openness" to evangelicals was all the cover they needed to support him because he'd "fight" for them. Vivek saying he is Hindu goes against all of that. It isn't an openness to converting to Christianity, it's an explicit rejection of that. This demographic really cares about "one of them" being in power.
This is correct. Evangelicals truly believe that Trump is a Christian. I feel like I have a pulse on the Evangelical community as I've dealt with some of the most well-known evangelicals in this country. They will absolutely not vote for a Hindu, at least not as a voting block. Remember, many had issues voting for a mormon 15yrs ago and that was before the rise of Christian Nationalism.
If for some reason Trump isn't in the running Vivek will have an awakening and become a born again Christian.
(sigh) Trump and the Christians. Thing is, I think Trump holds them in thrall because they fasten onto his language of aggrievement. Transfer Jesus assailed by the Sanhedrin and the Romans, the apostles unable to save Him, to Trump assailed by the deep state and the woke crowd and so on.
This is true. Check out Jesus and John Wayne: it's a great book about conservative Christians' need for a "fighter" who embodies their ideals if not their exact beliefs.
Well said. There's a lot of that here on the far-right. Some are ignoring blatant attempts by trump to literally steal the last election, just as they ignore the blatant efforts to suppress the vote in areas in states, including in Texas, that largely vote Democratic. Some claim it's just "politics as usual," when it is not remotely politics as usual, unless they are referring to politics during the 1950's and before. What we are seeing in Florida and Texas, and elsewhere, from DeSantis and Abbott (and others) is a recreation of what the Democrats did in the 1950's and before, only now, today, it's the Republican Party doing it. Make voting by the party opposing you as difficult as possible. Use blatant racism and bigotry to appeal to the worst inclinations of a minority of voters to "gin up" their numbers, while suppressing the vote in the major cities that tend to vote Democratic. Make strong efforts to spread the same thing in others parts of America. What we see here are a few members "fighting the low fight" and it is only a few, but they reflect the kinds of voters that are willing to ignore the attempts at election stealing, voter suppression, and the bigotry and racism aimed at minorities by the politicians they support. The MAGA voters. The voters who quietly cheered January 6th's assault on the Capital, while loudly claiming those extremists were "just misunderstood." The voters who DeSantis and his bigotry appeals to. The voters who are quiet while Abbott conducts his madness in Texas.
