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| Kasich in Medford |
John Kasich is an old school Republican.
Kasich kept the faith, and he is still preaching his message.
Kasich is the Republican alternative to Trump. That is his problem. GOP voters and media have embraced Trump.
Americans may not have noticed, but Trump has an active opponent. John Kasich is doing what people do when they are planning a primary campaign to unseat a sitting President of the same Party. Team Kasich is sharing a message, and raising money.
He was in New Hampshire in April. "All my options are on the table. But I don't know. . . . I'm trying to be a voice that brings about stability and objectivity in our country."
That is what people say when they want to run. The question is whether Republicans like him and his message.
John Kasich, Governor of Ohio and former candidate for president, promotes a message of familiar Republican thinking, the policies of Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bob Dole, Mitt Romney, and most GOP officeholders until the Era of Trump. His tone is earnest, not angry. He is religious, anti-abortion, fiscally and socially conservative, free trade, pro-business, lower deficits, pro-gun rights Main Street Chamber of Commerce Republican. Kasich is conservative, not populist. He is internationalist, not nationalist. He strikes a tone of inclusion not exclusion. He sounds nice--gentle even--not cruel.
By the May, 2016 Oregon primary election, voters saw both candidates and overwhelmingly chose Trump over Kasich.
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| Click: Kasich described: "loser." |
Kasich lost access to the usual conservative and Republican organs of GOP-Republican publicity, Fox News, talk radio, and conservative websites. Fox News is not all-GOP; now it is all-Trump. There is no place for Kasich on Fox except as the story of the outsider looking in. Fox's website calls Kasich a "Party Pooper", and illustrates the story with video of Trump. Click.
Kasich is getting media, but in all the serious places, not the places that excite the GOP voter base: Foreign Affairs magazine, PBS's renewed Firing Line, NPR's Weekend Edition, CNN's Smerconish, NBC's Brian Williams show. Trump has pre-warned Republican voters those news sources are fake.
I saw him in 2015 in New Hampshire and 2016 in Medford. I am on his mailing list and get three emails every week. He is campaigning and he is anti-Trump.
Family separation at the border, June 20: ". . . the President reversed his misguided decision and taken some steps to end his policy of separating children from their parents."
Trade, July 5: "This is a huge mistake. This is a disastrous decision that has been resoundingly condemned by both Republicans, Democrats and major U.S. businesses who know that this will only lead to American job losses."
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| https://www.johnkasich.com |
Foreign engagement, June 10. "We're in a dangerous time [because of the]. . . 'America alone' strategy. [We must] uphold our international alliances."
Neighbor relations, June 8. "Global security suffers when Trump snubs America's trading allies."
What about 2020?
John Kasich may not be selling what Republican voters want. This blog has maintained that Donald Trump's position on immigration only motivates a portion of the GOP coalition. The more powerful element is his tone and authoritarian demeanor of frank, brutal decisiveness and unapologetic desire to break rules to win. He convinces the various parts of the GOP coalition that he will be decisive in court nominations, on border enforcement, on asserting American greatness. His manner confirms it is possible to dismiss changes in demography and culture. America can be great again.
Return to civility. Kasich leads with an entirely different tone, calling himself a father, friend, person of faith, who has "called for a return to civility, truth and governing with not only our hearts, but with good, bipartisan public policy that actually improves the lives of all Americans." (June 29, 2018 fundraising letter.) After four years of Trump drama maybe America will want a return to "normalcy."
Or not.
6 comments:
Conservatives reject "open-borders" Kasich. He'll never win on the national stage.
Kasich is a RINO. Peter Sage loves RINOs.
Did you know that Kasich's dad was a postman? (BFD)
Too bad the Dems don't have a credible candidate to run against Trump in 2020. Perhaps they could draft Peter Sage, who claims to have attended Harvard. Trump will be easily re-elected in 2020.
And he comes with a great marketing angle “almost as exciting as Jeb Bush”
It appears that Curt Ankerberg needs a new hobby other than losing elections and flinging insults via the comment section. Is this the new "birther" movement on this blog, a "truther" campaign about Peter's academic pedigree? Yale and Harvard are pretty impressive accomplishments by any standard. Peter is a long standing member of the community and his completion of those degrees has never been in question because it's well documented. It's insane to pull this trump-like objection to reality to boost ones own false narrative.
Fess up Peter. We know you went to The Harvard School of Cosmetology back in the 1970s. You’re fooling no one ��
Anonymous....how many elections have YOU won? Have you ever tried to run against the establishment? You don't even have the courage to use your real name on Peter's blog.
If you're going to discuss insults, then that comes from the Democrats daily, and even from Peter, who is obsessed with Trump and Walden.
Why not a blog about all the great things that democrats are going to do, like regulate and tax everyone to death?
Obama was lucky to get a 2% economic growth rate, while Trump is at 4%. Obama caused healthcare costs to skyrocket. The Dems ain't got nothing.
Most of the time I get very useful comments on this blog. Curt Ankerberg has been posting as "Anonymous" and his posts are quite obvious. They have a false premise, that I am in cahoots with the Mail Tribune and Chamber of Commerce and that prominent members of those organizations were former clients. They weren't. Possibly I should be happy that Ankerberg finds my degrees from two universities important enough to bother claiming they are faked.
In his primary election against Jessica Gomez I chose to expunge all mention of him, which may have helped him. Had I left his bizarre posts up then more people would have realized that he was a sad, angry, man with a weird, pathetic compulsion to be nasty. I have visited with him and found him intelligent and pleasant--but then he went vicious. His behavior is self-destructive, so I let him do it, in the interests of letting the public decide for themselves what kind of candidate he is.
He is running for School Board, so it is important that Ankerberg be exposed to the public through his own writings.
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