Trump Announces Presidential Bid for 2024

[Dill]

(11-18-2022, 01:11 PM)hollodero Wrote: On the other hand, this could be exactly the reason why folks fall in line again. His perceived adversaries (I know not really, but that's the perception) in all of these matters are the liberals. And I might believe some folks glorify him less than they did before, I do not believe that these folks' disdain for liberals has in any way diminished. And when it's Trump vs. liberals, no question who FOX et al. will side with. And if this fight gets heated again, as it undoubtedly will, they will quickly go to the former extremes.

As for the primaries, imho it depends on how many people run against him. If it's only deSantis, I can see it getting close. If it's a bunch of folks whose most significant asset is that they are not Trump, then Trump will win the primaries again. It splits his opponents while his followers won't switch allegiance.

Yes, I tend to agree with the bolded here.  

But for the moment, Fox is testing the waters by airing some anti-Trump commentary, and somewhat coded affirmations of Trump "policies" which are supposed to have been great and which can be carried forward by others. 

Hannity has been hedging his bets, refusing to dump on Trump yet, calling himself "open" to what happens in the next year, but carefully reminding callers how "great" Trump's policies were and how people will soon miss 2 dollar a gallon gas enough to realize their mistaken voting, just because the guy threw out some mean tweets. (This to a caller who was saddened that the MSM had successfully "tagged Trump as toxic" and that's why his support seemed to be waning, not because of Trump's unstable, illegal, and very public behavior. The failed coup is equated to a mean tweet--bothers some, but real men shrug it off.) 

As Laura advocates Trumpism without Trump, it may be that "trump vs liberals" is gradually displaced by "DeSantis and others vs liberals."

But they keep repeating the conspiracies of the past 4 years as "fact." Dan Bongino even begged his listeners to send him more conspiracy theories because so many have turned out to be "true"--the Russia investigation Was a Hoax, like the two impeachments, Obama DID spy on Trump, the FBI was embedded in the Proud Boys and so had a role in instigating 1/6, Hunter Biden's laptop has been "verified," etc. They have to remain invested in the "witchhunt" politics to keep their audience and the political power which can extracted from their support.

This need may keep Trump in the mix, even if only inadvertently. The big objection to him is not that he "breaks china," but only that his endorsements no longer have the power to discipline the whole party in his direction.  For the moment. It's "the base" that will finally settle this, a base steeped in the aforementioned "facts" and still hostile to the more responsible reporting of the "fake news."