FrozenGoldfishGod posted:

Are you kidding? This is the same party that went all-in on a confessed, convicted kiddy-diddler as a serious candidate. He'll just spin it as a big-brain fakeout to get out of trouble, and his base will lap it up.

And before you say, "Well, the Republican party apparatus will surely act to primary him" - I'm sure they'll try, but they already tried that in 2016 and it didn't work then, largely because in the primaries with him in them their choices are 'try to out-bombast him', and 'try to present as an actual adult' - and neither of them are viable paths to victory for the vast majority of possible primary candidates.

Now, I don't particularly like his chances in the 2024 general, simply because he doesn't have the same mystery box appeal he did in 2016 - at least two moderates I know genuinely thought he'd be a moderate as president, albeit a somewhat more bombastic one than usual, simply because he didn't have the same record of open baby-eating ghoulishness as a career Republican. He doesn't have that 'unknown' factor any more: everyone knows he'll just be another Republican president, with an extra public helping of petty cruelty.