Clueless In The Elephant Room. It appears that the Party Convention bounces have played out and the race
has tightened up. Several polls reported
a very large Hillary lead following her coronation, but most recent polls
indicate those are likely the result of a dead cat bounce and the main stream media
effort to put some early space between Clinton and Trump. There is very little certain in American
politics these days; but one thing that is certain is that the next
Presidential Election is not yet decided. With candidates of this quality, a public relations
bomb could explode at any time.
Hillary
Clinton’s dedicated supporters are a very odd collection of individuals, as I
suppose are all political constituencies.
There are those capital “D”
Democrats who will vote the party line regardless; I believe this group of
people has gotten smaller in both parties over the last couple of decades as
voters have become a bit more independent and less loyal to the Party
line. There are some radical feminists
who will hold Hillary up as the Messenger
Arrived and will overlook every single flaw she possesses simply because
she is of the female gender. There are true
liberals who have studied policy and performance and realize full well that
Hillary’s Administration would be a continuation…yea, perhaps an escalation…of
Obama’s Liberal agenda quest. It is not
surprising that any of these aforementioned groups of voters might be
supporting Hillary Clinton. Any
conventional candidate (make no mistake,
Hillary Clinton is the ultimate conventional candidate) would find similar special
interests comprising their group of base voter support. But this time around, for this particular
Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton has an unusually large number of voters
in her camp that heretofore have been rather small in number and influence; she
has a lot of “hold your nose” voters
on her side. Given Clinton’s long
resume of government experience and the obvious flaws of Donald Trump, one
should not be surprised that at this point in the election, many people view
her as the lesser of two evils. On the surface,
she might appear to many as a lesser risk in the White House than Trump. The thing that mystifies me is the apparently
large number of these people who are of the Republican persuasion; many of them
being leadership or wealthy donor variety.
One cannot read a headline or open an article without seeing another
U.S. Republican Representative who has announced they will not be supporting
Trump. The Bushes, Mitt Romney, Cruz and
Kasich, the Koch brothers…all have thrown the cold shoulder at the Donald. Hell, they haven’t just thrown a cold shoulder;
they have lowered their shoulder and applied a blind side, right on the knee
cap, personal foul type of hit on Trump.
Invariably when this event occurs and we read of another prominent Republican personality
withholding their support for Trump, they do not extol the many virtues of
Hillary Clinton as the logic for withholding support. They simply toss a few offhand remarks that
seem to infer, sometimes succinctly and sometimes blatantly, that Donald Trump
is not fit to be President. How remarkable that this myriad collection of
saints and angels who have somehow maintained a pure and righteous conscience
throughout their political careers have finally
found a Republican candidate they cannot bring themselves to support. Would that each of these preening and
self-aggrandizing hypocrites offer up a list of the many Republican candidates
they have supported over their lifetimes; knowing full well that amongst the
names on the list will appear characters far more detestable than Donald
Trump. Why, at this moment in time, have
they decided to draw the moral line in the sand? What, in the obscene and scurrilous world of
American politics, is so terrible about Trump that their sensibilities are
simply overwhelmed by the prospect of pulling the lever for Trump? In the instance of each one of these people,
one should ask themselves…Is Trump that much more corrupt and flawed than Hillary
and if not, what is the motivation for these people to withhold their support
for the legitimate Republican candidate and essentially aid and abet the effort
of Hillary Clinton to be our next President?
Considering the extensive record of the Clintons and their “pay to play” form of governing, what
can Hillary offer these folks that Trump does not? Can it be a sincere form of outrage that
Trump is such train wreck of a candidate that he does not deserve at least a
modicum of party deference in his effort to end the last eight years and future
eight years of liberal governance in America? Trump is undeniably the Devil that many Republicans
suspect; but Clinton is damn sure the Devil that many Republicans know.
In
my lifetime of sixty plus years, I do not believe I have ever known a candidate
held in lower public esteem than Hillary Clinton. Even the ardent Democrats that I speak with
and consider friends support her out of motivation other than admiration and
respect. Americans are yearning for a
reason not to vote for Hillary
Clinton. They are making a careful
assessment of Trump and trying to decide if he could keep it between the
ditches if elected. She has made little
effort to conceal that her quest for the Presidency is a thrust borne of
blatant personal ambition and greed and will no doubt be a continuation of
Obama’s liberal policies. On both
counts, I am convinced that the majority of American voters do not want this
for our nation. Hillary is playing a hide and seek game of campaigning;
simply sitting on a perceived lead and giving Trump all the rope he needs to
hang himself with. It is hard to argue
with the wisdom of this strategy and it appears at this point in time to be
headed towards a successful conclusion.
The puzzling thing to me is the decision by many in the Republican Party
to essentially help Hillary tie the noose around the Donald’s neck. Can they not see that Congressional numbers
will do them no good if Executive Power and Supreme Court opinions are aligned
against them? Do they really think that
if Hillary Clinton is elected President, they will have a good opportunity to
defeat her in four years and then install their mechanism to unwind the nanny
state status of our country? Really? As lame as I am as a political
prognosticator, there is no doubt in my mind that if the Republicans had
nominated Rubio, Kasich …even Cruz, then they would find themselves with a
significant post-convention lead in this contest. Hillary Clinton is that flawed as a Presidential choice. Instead, they chose a reality TV personality
with a big mouth to represent their party.
Their bed is made and it should be slept in. The inexplicable thing is that so many
Republicans now, having made their bed, are looking longingly across the hall
at the Democratic bed and eyeballing a place on the mattress. They should take a long pause and think
carefully…bed hopping oftentimes leads to unintended consequences and most of
them are not very pleasant. If Hillary
Clinton is elected President in November, the course of this nation will be
determined for the foreseeable future in a very predictable fashion. Every Republican within earshot will be
bitching and whining every step of the way as Hillary unwinds her liberal
agenda; but they have no quarter to complain.
If Hillary Clinton is our next President, it will be the Republicans who
elect her.
The reason pro athletes are such easy targets for financial malfeasance is their pride prevents them from reporting the crime. They just never talk about it out of embarrassment. And so it continues as a plague on all of them. I think the gop is in a similar predicament. out of pride unwilling to admit a 65 year democrat whose sole claim to fame is reality television duped their party by exposing the lowest common denominator in their base. What can they do? At least one and up to 3 scotus nominations are on the line. They can't surrender. They can't change. They HAVE to ride it out and hope.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as one such democratic voter you mentioned, I find that the other shoe has likewise changed feet and I am falling in line. I'm not knocking on doors for HRC and part of me is disappointed this is what we came up with. But the choice is between these 2, not who might have been. The fear of trump is born not of what he will do but of what he's doing now and that is not knowing what to do. how to politically succeed. He's at the point now where he can give a stump speech, hug some vets and walk it in the end zone and he can't. He isn't stupid, he's incompetent. He is displaying an inability to yield to council and make things work and I'm talking about his own party and Fox News. Tee ball stuff. What happens when he actually has to work with outsiders, with intelligence or foreign states. The answer everyone knows and no one says is he doesn't know how and the fear is doesn't care to learn. Deep down the realization is things could be worse than Obama. Things could be a lot worse when the president has an impulse control problem. When he is at best uninterested and at worst a lunatic.Four years on defense is not what Ryan signed on for and there are down ballot races to consider. I disagree that Clinton has a probable two terms. I think that the gop will have sobered up and will hit hard in four years. Protect majorities and hope for harder economic times and this may be seen historically as the time of party unification. No one will blame anyone but trump for the loss provided they get in front and get on the record- and so you see these prominent party figures backing off.
Great observations. Two points I disagree with. First, things cannot be worse than Obama. Two, good luck getting Hillary out of the White House with that "party unification" schtick.
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