It is something of an unbelievable week. Life is a tough place, a tough space. It can be incredible, and it can be indescribable. This week has been a tumult of everything.
We have seen Donald Trump, in all his bigoted, bloated, bloviating, biased and bullshit glory, solidify his hold on the Republican nomination. None but the most desperate believe anyone but Trump will win the nomination. This is what the Republican Party has given themselves. They are the ones to blame for Trump. And Super Tuesday, they will be served the dessert for all their work.
They have espoused a morally bankrupt, tone deaf, barely veiled racism for almost 40 years. The saddest piece is that Trump has boldly proclaimed what they have stood for, fought for and filibustered to protect. It is killing them. Having someone that actually says it out loud, that we should build a fortified wall on our border with a treaty trading partner; deport 11 or more million mostly law abiding people back to the hell hole, so vile they risked their lives and freedom to come here from, however they could; and speaks of wealth with the avarice that politicians cannot stand to hear aloud, though they privately practice that faith and allegiance at every turn. It is what they have earned. Trump is the ultimate embodiment of the insular, misogynist, jingoistic fantasy they have been building since 1980 and Reagan's election.
We have also seen Hillary complete the basis for her nomination. She no longer even speaks of Sanders, and only the most foolish feel like he has any possibility of winning the nomination. This is the sentence the Democrats have given themselves. A pandering, lying, conniving, power at any cost, selfish and egocentric narcissist that feels she is owed the Presidency, by virtue of her woman parts. Because she is a woman, because she has somehow earned it in her mind, by being potentially the worst Secretary of State we have had in the last 100 years, since the end of WWI and the League of Nations, she feels she is eminently qualified. The media, bless their heart, cannot figure out any better and just second her lunacy on that subject. And on Super Tuesday, we are going to make it official, and shame on us.
The Democrats have espoused the populist pablum that has zero opportunity for action for the last 20 years. We owe more to the poor, more entitlement waste, less defense spending in a more dangerous world, more lying to allies, more feckless policy and process, more unqualified bureaucrats instead of qualified professionals. She is the ultimate embodiment of everything the Democrats have worked for since 1980 and Reagan's election. More power to them, but my guess is they will choke on the scandal filled and gridlocked reality that she is, just as they did on Slick Willie.
This election will come down to two of the most tainted candidates, with less than one full person's worth of integrity between them. It is a colossal train wreck that we are all complicit in creating. We have enabled the idiots that play in this arena to hide behind partisanship and "principle". We have demanded that they play to the basest instincts of those on either side. We have ensured that unless they slavishly follow along with some perceived narrow band of ideology, that we will turn on them and vote for an even more extreme and less qualified model.
The Tea Party is a warning. Bernie Sanders is a warning. But the real lesson is going to either the Trump or Hillary Administration. We did it to ourselves. In 2008, I thought the worst had occurred. We had an election that pitted an untried first term Senator, that was notable only for his oratory, against a decorated, but seriously crazy, Vietnam war hero. Giving each their due, Obama won because he chose well in his advisers and his running mate, and he continued to rise to the challenge of ever greater oratory. He sounded great. McCain ran an impressive primary campaign, tactically defeating much more establishment friendly candidates. But, he failed to prune out the fools in his campaign and he saddled himself with one of the most epically unqualified running mates in the history of running mates.
Choosing poorly, to shore up a segment of the far right base, and continuing to slavishly follow the bleating of the "principled" idiots in Congress and the Tea Party, McCain threw away an election. How else do you explain a black man, community activist and Ivy League alumni, beating a decorated war hero, former prisoner of war? The Republicans threw it away, because they could not stop themselves.
The Democrats have done better at stopping themselves, and not pandering to the base of their party at the risk of the vast middle of the electorate, but just barely and only in comparison to the genocide the Republicans practice every 4 years. You never hear them saying the foolishness of the Right, "I would rather lose an election, than compromise an inch." Have it your way, and lose elections. The Dems figured that part out against Reagan, who refused to leave the middle ground, and outwitted them continually. They learned and took the lessons seriously.
But, they are falling apart. Now we have a candidate that is solely to salve the conscience of the Dems, because they feel like they robbed her in 2008. They had to pick between the first Black President and the first Female President, and the Dems always bet on black. It worked. But, now they are pulling a Republican move, and going with the person they feel they owe the chance to, regardless of how poor a person she truly is, nor the train wreck she is going to be as President.
She will beat Donald Trump in the fall. There is no question in my mind. Trump is too dangerous, too impromptu. He will say too much of the right thing the wrong way, and the wrong thing an even wronger way. The media, who hates him, will give Hillary untold hours of free negative campaigning. And the crazy, redneck 30% of the Republican party, that has relegated them nationally to a swath of states that looks impressive in number, but is paltry in electoral college votes, will not overcome the left and right coast and Great Lake states that decide Presidential elections and will vote against Trump. This is their own doing, and I don't feel sorry for them.
I feel sorry for America. But, we have done it to ourselves. We have created 2016, where the best we could do, to see to our ship of state, is a billionaire bigot and a felon except for conviction with female anatomy. There is not a worthwhile idea between them. There is not a worthwhile principle between them. There is not a worthwhile ounce of anything.
Whoever runs for the Green Party, and for the Libertarian Party, and Cream of Wheat Party, is about to be surprised at how many votes they get. The talking heads have some responsibility for this, but it falls on our shoulders. We deserve it. We put up with the last eight years in Washington, and did not vote out the factions of dischord. Now, the court jesters and serious criminals are about to take charge. It is the single most depressing news that will come out of today's election coverage. The inevitability of it is setting in.
And the worst part, the folks that vowed to leave the country if Hillary or Trump were nominated, they won't follow through on their vow. So we won't get rid of the Koch Brothers, or Sharpton. Not even that much good will be done. Sad, isn't it, that Carter and George Bush the First look so good in comparison. At least they stood for something and not just for themselves. God help us all.
GLYASDI
No comments:
Post a Comment