MSNBC is calling the Democrat nomination for Secretary Clinton, in advance of actual results from California, based on some combination of delegate counts, polling and wishing-will-make-it-so. Even if I wasn't skeptical of her and her party, being the Comcast Candidate would be a pretty big negative. (Ms. Clinton touts herself as historic, "the first major-party woman candidate for high office." Tam doubts this.)
The contrast between Hillary Clinton's media-driven inevitability and the enthusiasm shown for Senator Sanders by her party's younger and less Establishment members has been instructive -- and reminds me of the gap between Mr. Trump's supporters and the businessmen-as-usual GOP. (Though the Republicans do, at least, have Tea Party types camped out in the space between, as the poet wrote, "the Queen's person and The Queen," or, less poetically, trying to bridge betwixt two-fisted nativist populism and the Skull & Bones set.)
If I ran a "major party" -- or even gave two cents about either one -- I'd be looking up from the tea leaves with cold chills down my back. One party's leadership has utterly lost its king-making mojo and the other seems to be just barely hanging on to it thanks to a persistent personality. The vox pop. may be deeply ignorant, but it knows what it doesn't like -- and aversion is generally stronger than admiration.
Expect a lot of voting against this go-round. Expect campaigns based on being the anti-opponent ("Vote for me! I'm not that horrible person they are running!"); expect a lot of fear-mongering from the Left and Right, and few if any rosy visions of the sort Bernie Sanders or Ronald Reagan once shared. Statesmanship isn't so much dead as barbecued and on a platter in the center of the table with an apple in its mouth.
The good news is, the (as-yet un-nominated) candidates and not some random sample of the subject population are the contestants in the 2016 Hunger (for power) Games! The bad news? They can't both lose.
The odds are never in our favor.
I've begun to think of it less as a choice for a good candidate, and more as a veto over the bad candidate.
ReplyDeleteI think one party's leadership is a lot more worried than the other about the consequences of failing to take down the Presumptive. As Verbal Kint put it in The Usual Suspects: "How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?"
ReplyDeleteBoth are worried about that, but....
"Never do an enemy a small injury."
ReplyDelete- Machiavelli
Worse, think about what's coming after them.
ReplyDeleteMillenials.
I was talking to a friend on the phone last night, and he said (and I agreed) that it looks like we'll be comfortably in our graves just about the time things really go completely to hell. I certainly hope so. But I'm still rooting for SMOD.
I'm afraid this year's campaign/election is going to be everything Roberta said it's going to be.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think Mr. Fuzzy Curmudgeon is an optimist.
The fix is in.
ReplyDeleteIt has been in for the last couple of years.
The hildebeast will take over, regardless of the machinations of the erstwhile Republican party and strawman Trump. It's only a show, for the benefit of the proles, but the decision and mandate of the powers-that-be have made it quite plain what the result will be.
It's not what I want, nor what the country needs. We have allowed the creeping corruption, knowing it was there but not inclined to fight it forcefully, or even with counter-rhetoric.
Sadly, we have allowed it to happen. The re-election three years ago wrote the message clearly and we are now going to fully reap the harvest of eight years of folly.
For once, and like Fuzzy, I'm glad I'm old.
Raz
Saw a comment today on the Book of Face that scared the bejebus outta me: That when H-illary! does take over, she'll nominate Obama to SCOTUS to fill Scalia's seat. (This would align with the Obama's announced intentions to stay in DC after the election.)
ReplyDeleteThen I was struck with the thought that Obama couldn't phone that job in like he does as pResident.
Yes, I am afraid that the Historic candidate will wind up winning in the end. My cynicism and disgust with the whole political process is enormous.
ReplyDeleteBut my prediction is this : there's one or two smart guys out there watching this election very carefully. Trump's success (and to some extent, Bernie's), is based on a huge groundswell of dissatisfaction among the commoners. The next guy will build on that as well, but be more polished, careful, and smooth. I think the door has been opened on a new phase of the political process.
"They can't both lose." Oh crap, we are so screwed.
ReplyDelete