The pivot is strong

Trump's recent flurry of liberal positions seems a clumsy pivot, if that's what it is - suddenly coming out for transgender choice in public restrooms, for taxes on the rich, and having his surrogates say Trump's wackiness is just for show. But it doesn't need to be very good yet - Freepers will stay with him no problem, and the GOP is desperately looking for an excuse to back him.

I say over and over again that nativism is the only true Freep principle. The number of actual fundamentalists is quite small. The rest will yell about all sorts of other stuff, but all of that is just tribal signaling that they will throw overboard when it is inconvenient.
But it is amusing to watch them rationalize their way into mainstream liberalism for Trump, even on the wedge issue of transgenders and bathrooms.

Jim Robinson spins on Trump's behalf:

Trump says leave it the way it is, ie, men use the men’s room women use the women’s room. No biggie.

His mind mad up, Jim Robinson will not hear any other facts!

Jim, respectfully, that isn’t what he said. He said let them use any bathroom they want to use.

I heard him say “leave it as it is.”

And Jim Robinson's still in purge mode:

Of course we should focus on the border. That is why his statement committing to a pathway to citizenship for illegals is so disgusting.

Liar. Bye.

cardinal4 cares only about three things, none of them social issues:

Islam, illegal immigration, and Federal and Supreme Court justices are my main requirements for the next POTUS. All the other stuff is just a distraction. I believe that addressing the former will take care of the latter..

Lakeshark raves about Trump's statement - not as bad as everyone says!

I read all the headlines earlier, and said that Trump had lost it.

Then I listened to the interview.

It was tiniest of gaffes, not worthy of attention, and what was reported was never true.

The GOPe/Cruz conglomerates are just as hard at work as Media Matters were.......they should be ashamed of themselves.

reaganaut sees to have some family issues:

There are more important things to worry about. I grew up in a gay town (Palm Springs) and in the gay culture because I had a gay father. I oppose homosexuality, but at the same time, I grew up with Trannies and them in the bathroom was never an issue it hasn’t been until a couple of months ago. Most went to the mens room, some went to the women’s no one cared. The libs have seen this as a weak spot to make us look like bigots and evil Christians and are driving a wedge.

There are bigger fish to fry. And I was never allowed in the bathroom unaccompanied.

double_down tells a story I'm a bit skeptical of:

Two people I know well have 11 & 12 year old boys being raised as girls. I feel terrible for these families as this is not what they expected when raising these kids. However, they are passionate about supporting their kids and have been lobbying our legislature for trans access to girls bathrooms and locker rooms. As a parent of a 12 year old girl, I am very opposed to these initiatives. It is an issue for me and will be for you when men start accessing the locker room where female members of your families change.

KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle thinks we need some perspective, and the coming apocalypse won't start in the bathroom:

Virulent Islamofascism spreading across the globe... both major political parties maniacally devoted towards transforming the United States into Mexico North, ASAP... the very concept of free speech going up in flames, across the length and breadth of a nation once fearlessly devoted to same...

"Potty rights" ain't even on my radar. Seriously.

KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle next explains how anyone criticizing Trump for this actual factual thing is being fooled by The Conspiracy:

The repeated image of poster after poster after poster hereabouts, undergoing the online equivalent of Grand Mal seizures over something as comparatively picayune as this -- while, even as we speak, the GOPe and the 'Rats are openly conspiring to transform this still-beautiful nation of ours into a Muslim-compliant quasi-Marxist "paradise," packed to the rafters with the cheapest possible Mexican slave labor --

serves to remind us, anew, that there's no sucker so easily shaken down and stripped as a gullible and willing one, ultimately. Like watching a crowd of credulous rubes being clumsily swindled by an inept Three Card Monte man, it's both amusing and depressing, in roughly equal measure.

mouse1 agrees - Hillary bad, all principles not so important:

Hillary waltz’s into the Whitehouse....Presto we are in hell.

Couldn’t say it better myself. Every election I am like chicken little screaming the “sky is falling” - “This is the most important election of our life times”. Well, this time it really is. Cruz/GOPe continue to fracture the party beyond repair. This will effect down ticket races, both national and local. Criminal Clinton will be the president. SCOTUS picks will be left of the left. We won’t have another chance to fix it. Millions of new American voters will ensure the Republicans never win again. Welcome to Hell!

Bathroom issues are just a distraction from what’s really important.

Behind the Blue Wall has a bigger problem - fears of gay men lusting after his penis in the bathroom:

Technically I’ve always felt slightly uncomfortable with openly gay men in the men’s bathroom. I don’t see how you ban trannies from one bathroom or the other without also addressing that.

SubMareener is pretty sure any criticism of Trump is insanity:

They can’t stop themselves. It doesn’t matter what he actually said. Trump Derangement Syndrome is it full force!

arl295 spins all of Trump's other pivot attempts. He should not quit is day job:

NO one is freaking out, just showing trump showing his true colors. Dont forget about his comments on abortion and raising taxes on the rich, all in one day. The mask is coming off.

He said he was going to fix the carry over interest loop hole, something hedge fund managers won’t like, this affects the uber rich, not the 50K a year rich that Bernie and the rest of the liberal hate

As for abortion, the three exceptions are just that exceptions. I don’t know how I can force a woman to have a child she did not consent to creating. She was a victim and now the rapist forced her be a mother and he is now the biological father. I understand the 100% anti-abortion stance, but I also see the rape exception as well.

lodi90 just yells that Cruz is totally much much worse:

Cruz showed his “true colors” strutting about in his holier than thou pose while stuffing his pockets full of homo activist donor money. And you CRuzies care not one bit about the hypocrisy and lack of principle of that.

Cruz and his parrots don’t care one bit about North Carolina. Barely said a word about it until Trump did today. This is just another political hammer to hit Trump with. Transparent. This inauthenticity is exactly why Cruz is losing.

Feeling liberated, arl295 comes out for a rape exception to abortion:

When you force a woman to have the rapist's baby, you are giving a right to that woman's womb to the rapist, you are saying that it is his, he can procreate with her without her consent. That is what you are saying. You are saying woman are like animals and have no say in who they get to reproduce with. Sure the rapist might end up going to jail for many many years, but he did get to father a child with the victim without her consent. And you demand that she has his baby.

always up for double duty, Georgia Girl 2 spins AND minimizes:

I basically agree with Trump. He isn’t saying NC has no right to pass a law he’s saying he doesn’t know that its necessary as so far it has not caused big problems.

How many trannies have you seen in the ladies room lately? I have seen none. Have not seen any news reports of it either. Maybe it won’t ever be a big problem. If it is then you deal with it.

AllAmericanGirl44 takes the new party line - the world is falling apart, so the culture war no longer matters:

Hear about China blowing off a missile? How about Russia’s aggression? New tunnels found from mehico to San Diego?

But please, let’s all ring our hands over this non issue and turn into a gotcha. Pathetic

sphinx responds to all this foreign policy BS fearmongering with some transgender BS fearmongering:

I agree that bathrooms will be mostly a non-issue, which is why the left is trying to make this all about bathrooms to show how uptight conservatives are.

But it’s not just about bathrooms. Obama is insisting that showers and locker rooms be opened in middle and high schools, on pain of the school losing funding.

And sexually confused boys are now entitled to play on girls’ teams.

I’m waiting for a 17 year old coed to show up in college next fall and find she’s been assigned a woman with a penis as a roommate — and the college will send her to reeducation sessions if she complains, because after all it’s two girls rooming together so there’s nothing to see.