Oh No, The New Awesome Primary Thread

Typical politician - Rand Paul wants it both ways. He got the Republicans in Kentucky to change from primary vote to caucus so Paul could run for both President and Senate at the same time.Not only is he hunting for his next job while collecting his current paycheck (and skipping a lot of work), but he wants to keep his safe Senate seat while trying for a promotion.He dropped the Presidential race to fight both the caucus challengers and the election Democrat.

IMHO - Trump is very much the politician like the rest of the candidates right and left. He's just better at manipulating the media and he's more fun for the media to cover. It comes down to entertainment and news ratings rather than substance.One of the reasons Trump is popular is his salesmanship. He tells people what they want to hear, especially if it's simplistic and goes along with their pre-conceived ideas. No challenging them. Unfortunately for us, unlike a business deal that comes with a contract, we have to trust politicians that they will keep their side of a bargain.Waterboarding & other tortures - it seems a quick solution that punishes those you pre-determine to be guilty. That experts tell you it doesn't work is beside the point. Push the contrived and very rare situation of the immediate threat straight out of the movies and television. Despite what you see on television, intelligence agencies want the long term information about the whole organization, especially the money trail. For that, the agencies need cooperation not panic based lies.Border fence - An idea that the average American can picture so it seems right. The fact that it will cost billions and take years is skimmed over. With people overstaying tourist, education and other visas being half the illegal problem, it's not enough of a solution. I think a faster and more efficient method would be to crack down on businesses but that would be not be PC for the Republican base. The PC stance is that the problem with illegal immigration is the government not corporate greed.Chasing people out of your meetings without coats - If they are disruptive, calm professional security escorts them out. Taking coats is THEFT. Throwing people into the winter without coats is at a minimum bad manners. I'm middle class, middle aged and Middle West (you would think Republican base) and I'm appalled that such behavior is cheered.

Pew Research has an article on Europe's Muslim population: 5 facts about the Muslim population in Europe | Pew Research CenterAt 20 million-ish, Muslims were roughly 6% in 2010 and projected to hit 8% in 2030.By my math, assuming all Muslims are anti-Semitic (extreme example), then to get the 40% anti-Semitic for all Europe means roughly 35% of other Europeans are.An article referenced by another Pew Research article is from the New York Times on Jews leaving France. Fear on Rise, Jews in France Weigh an Exit - The New York TimesThe NYT article discusses how the Jews are leaving due to the Muslim extremist attacks in France and the fear of more. So while Muslims are a small percentage of the European population, Jews in France perceive Muslims are more of a threat than anti-Semitics in general.In my searching I found a Duke University study. The title asks a good question - Why so rare? Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security -With 20 million Muslims in Europe and 3.3 million in the US, if terror was acceptable, expected, whatever to the Muslims then wouldn't some percentage of their population be involved? The Duke study lists less than 200 actively involved which works out to 0.006% of US Muslims.According to the Duke study (pg 471 bottom), US Muslims are as middle class as US in general and more integrated than the European Muslims. Is Muslim violence like much of the violence in the US coming from perceived poverty and alienation from the dominant culture? I could see where adding a religious aspect would provide a target for violence rather than just mugging whoever is available.

Curious about your affiliation graphic - are the numbers by voting style or by registration?I tend to think of Independents as clumped into
True - vote based on individual candidates
Other party
Dem leaning
Rep leaningI call myself Independent since no party really represents my positions on the full range of issues. I do tend to vote Dem since the Reps are so far from me on issues that really affect me or the country long term. Unfortunately the other parties get too few votes except in local elections.So my point is that Independent may be misleading as some percentage will vote reliably for Dem or Rep or neither.

The Republicans have to stay far enough right that the Libertarian candidates don't pick up enough from the Republicans to cause a Democrat win. According to RealClearPolitics.com, Johnson (L) is polling at very roughly the difference between Clinton & Trump.But Republicans can't move too far right to lose the Independent-ish Republican-ish people to non-vote or Democrat.