With respect, fwiw: I’m a Trump guy but I seriously considered RDS… He made a conscious decision (he or ppl around him but the buck stops with him), instead of billing himself as Trump 2.0, same policies & ideas but more competent and disciplined, he billed himself as *anti-Trump*. First on the vaxx. (Typical consultant-think: ohh, we’ll outflank Trump on the RIGHT! 300 IQ!) Then targeting Evangelical boomers and talking about how he was more socially conservative and Jesus-y than Trump. Except that those people have been well aware of Trump’s heresies since 2016 and have made the determination, rightly or wrongly, that the plusses outweigh the minuses. Whatever. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback. But it’s definitely the case that between the beginning of the campaign and now, conscious decisions were made that, at least in retrospect, look like they were designed to turn off people like me, and average Republican voters, who started out as fans of both RDS and Trump, and made the choice much easier for them.
Sorry if this ruffles feathers, and I have friends in both camps and both camps are respectable, but that’s just the way I see it.
The thing is, having been around this block, I just know there was a meeting. With consultants. And powerpoint. "Here’s the most gettable demographic. It’s White Evangelicals over 50, who go to church every Sunday, they’re the ones who are most uncomfortable with Trump’s style and history and his deviations from socially conservative orthodoxy, and they turn out more, particularly in Iowa. If you go after them, it will boost your polls, and give you momentum, and bla bla bla" Ok. I just smell consultant-think and consultant-speak. What the consultants failed to anticipate was that it would just make him come across as fake and inauthentic and more anti-Trump than (I believe) he really is.
Again, in some ways this is very "unfair" to RDS who is a highly competent and intelligent conservative. On the other hand decisions were made and signed off on that led to where he is now. Political arena is tough, man.
It’s sad. He 5000% deserves better. But no one has a right to be President of the United States. He decided to get in there.
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