Many have demonstrated a capacity to be led to dark places, and I struggle to find a durable line that would be "too far" for the quarter of Americans who are all in for MAGA. I use the word durable because a sizable number of them found sudden moral clarity in the afternoon and evening of January 6, 2021, only to see it evaporate within a week.

But Trump earns more of my ire than his acolytes. Painful as it is, Trump is an extraordinary leader, and it is inescapable that a large portion of the citizenry is susceptible to charismatic persuasion. For the minority of MAGA world who are bomb-throwers and bigots and monsters, Trump has given them license to let it all hang out. But for the much larger segment of (right-leaning) society that is animated by fear of the other - the woke, the progressive, whatever bogeyman other leaders like Hannity and Carlson have thrust in their faces nightly - he has led these malleable folks in dark directions. He is amoral and supremely gifted at stoking passions.

There will eventually come a time when he is gone and it is unlikely that there will be another capable of continuing this grift at this level. My hope is that someone with moral leadership can emerge on the right to recapture the everyman who has been led so astray, but I may be naive. I am certain, however, that I will not forget what my fellow countrymen are capable of, and how essential it is that their passions be directed by a moral leader. The trick will be attracting such a person to public life.

I wish I were more hopeful, regardless of the outcome in November.

Cash

Sustained cold temps--particularly sustained minus temperatures in double digits--are rare in Colorado. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Colorado occurred in February, 1985, when -61 was recorded in Maybell, a small (80 inhabitants), unincorporated town in Moffatt County in the far northwest corner of the state astride the Wyoming-Colorado state line. I couldn't figure out why it would be so cold up there until I saw that Maybell sits at 6,700 feet.

I wish it would be -61 in Iowa every day for about 100 years.

As a falling thermometer in December
If you ask about our weather in July”
(Iowa Stubborn - The Music Man)

It saddens me to see what has become of Iowa. It wasn’t that long ago we had one of the most conservative Senators (Grassley) and one of the most liberal (Harken). For 30 years we had Jim Leach as a Republican in the House, but today he would be a left wing Democrat. In 2009 Iowa was the first in the nation to recognize same sex marriage. Just 15 years ago.

West of I-35 was always solidly conservative Republican, Steve King territory. But the eastern half was decidedly more liberal. Iowa City was always very left wing, and Cedar Falls just a bit more to the right. Cedar Rapids and Des Moines trended Democratic. The Quad Cities, Dubuque, Waterloo, and Ft. Dodge were blue collar union strongholds, primarily John Deere influenced.

There are still liberal and Democratic pockets, but the state is full on red and heavily MAGA.

I used to defend Iowa’s first in the nation status. The diversity of political opinion (if not race, etc), the serious civic mindedness of the populace, and the low cost of entry were strong points in my opinion. But no more. I’d be happy to see this be the last Iowa caucus with a switch to several groups of state primaries.

Fred Grandy was a Republican but these days would be in the same category as Leach.

I’d like to wish everyone a happy Go Back to Ignoring Iowa Day.

The state is as exciting as the Hawkeye offense.

elected and unelected. I grew up in an area that was pretty evenly split between R's and D's (had been a long time R stronghold) and there was more agreement between the parties than disagreement. It was an area with good union manufacturing jobs and the area thrived.

Then came the late 70's and early 80's. The manufacturer's moved to Georgia to break the unions, interest rates soared and so did unemployment. I think it topped out around 23% and we were in the top 10 for unemplyment in the nation.

The economy recovered but those good jobs did not come back in the same way. There was some growth until the 2008 crisis when the area was back in the top 10 when it was named one of the 10 markets where home values would take the longest to recover thanks to the out of town subprime lenders

The county voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 16 and 20. I grew up there so I know a significant part of it is racism and a backlash from Obama's election but it is also a frustration over their lives being upended and made increasingly difficult. I have written before about my view on the confluence of the Civil Rights movement and offshoring and how the silmultaneous nature deflected responsibility for the societal changes so I wont repeat that here.

These folks have not shared in the gains of the last 40 years in the way many others have. Ironically we now have a company that wants to build an EV battery factory and research campus with jobs paying 55,000 a year and up but many of the people who would benefit opposed the project because the parent is a Chinese company. Never mind that Volkswagon is among the largest shareholders Trump says China is bad.

I can understand those people who have been led astray by the promises of Donald J. Trump that he woudl solve their problems and defeat those woke liberals who ruined their lives. What I can not understand is the lack of leadership and of the elected Republican officials who have been given multiple opportunities to tell the truth about Trump and have repeatedly bent knee and worshipped him. It is difficult to say who is the best example maybe Lindsey Graham who back in 2015 or 2016 said if we nominate Trump he will destroy the party and we will deserve it but there a host of others. I probably need to include the folks in the right wing media echo chamber as well.

It seems the biggest indicator of whether someone supported Trump last night was whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen. If someone believed they mainly supported Trump. If they did not believe it they mainly supported Haley.

Republican party officials and office holders allowed Trump to claim for months before the election that he could only lose if the election was stolen from him. When he lost they allowed him continue to claim the election was stolen and in fact amplified those claims. To see the texts from Fox News Host and how different they werre form their public statements in shocking and enraging. But whywould the "common man" believe these lies when no one they trust told them differently. In one of the initial debates the moderator asked the candidates if they would support Trump if he were the nominee. Everyone except Hutchinson adn Christie raised their hands (DeSantis always a profile in courage first looked to see what others were doing). If the candidates running against Trump believe he is fit for office and willing to support him why shouldn't Joe from small town Iowa or Illinois?

The politicization of the evangelical church also factors in here. Wrapping the poltical battle in religion gives it a component where compromise is impossible.

As someone else said in this thread I am worried about the outcome of the 2024 election either way. If Trump wins I dont know if the guardrails will hold. If Trump loses I dont know how the Republican party accepts the legitimacy of the election and that is the most fundamental characteristic of the past 200 plus years.

Goes to what I said below. There are people susceptible to a demagogue anywhere in the world, and our country is no different. It's the Messiah Complex. The biggest disappointment to me is the people in power who know what a danger he is but enable him anyway.

Trump is absolutely the problem. No one else would have done what he did and gotten away with it. Case in point: DeSantis. One, I don't think he would have ever considered in a million years overthrowing an election. Second, he wouldn't have the charisma to pull it off if he had.

Trump is unfortunately unique, because he has a cult. He's not unique in American history, but is unique at this time. It will be a happy day for this country when he is finally off the stage no matter who gets rid of him.

...not in every detail, of course, but the overall concept is rather similar.

In McCarthy's case, after he was off the stage you'd have had almost as hard a time finding anyone who supported him as you would finding a German-American Bundist on December 8, 1941.

Long had his supporters even after his death, but that faded and no one with a similar cult following took his place, so that does work better. Because MAGA will stick with Trump, but most Republicans will move on. MAGA might look for another Trump, but they won't find one.

There's no there there without him.