Well, it appears that both models of the Republocrat bulldozer are slowly and inexorably making their way to their respective (if not respectable) Party’s nomination. The red one, driven by ‘The Donald’, as one of his wives often referred to Donald Trump, boldly proclaims United States superiority in everything, although it defines ‘U.S.’ in mainly white terms. Racism, religious intolerance and general xenophobia are the order of the day for Mr. Trump and his multitudinous followers.
Proudly driving the blue model is former First Lady Hillary Clinton. She is looking a little the worse for wear, having fought and successfully thrown Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders out of the bulldozer, but he continues to run alongside, shouting various obscenities at her. Such phrases as ‘free tuition’ and ‘no bank too big to fail’ are most offensive to Mrs. Clinton, but she can barely hear them over the roar of her many fans.
The blue model has a great advantage over the red: there is a bottomless pit of fuel available for it, coming from Wall Street and a wide range of lobby groups. Million-dollar donations will assure that Mrs. Clinton reaches the destination for which she has set her GPS: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
And does it not seem that the Republican Party is determined to escort her there? First, they created an environment where the likes of Donald Trump, of all people, could be their nominee. Fanning the flames of racism as the Party establishment did everything in its power to oppose the election, re-election and programs of the first African-American president in U.S. history could only result in that most awkward situation in which the Party finds itself today. And to make matters even worse (if such a thing is possible), the GOP powers that be have apparently determined that they won’t just bite the bullet, put on a happy face and support Mr. Trump. No, rather than that, they are looking at ways to stop him, up to and including the possibility of a brokered convention, a spectacle not seen in decades. One can imagine the eventually nominee, the product of backroom deals, partisan bickering and ego-fed arguments, emerging meekly from the convention, the ‘last resort’, the ‘best they could do under the circumstances’, and the ‘better than Trump’ candidate. Oh yes, let’s just hand the presidency to Mrs. Clinton.
Do the Democrats have a better alternative? Well, no. Sadly, for the last eight years, there has been the assumption that Mrs. Clinton would be the next president. She spent four years as a most ineffective Secretary of State, accomplishing nothing good and only fostering human rights tragedies, and for the longest time coyly telling the world she was ‘considering’ a run for the White House. If there is anyone on planet Earth for whom her decision to run was a surprise, we should all find out where that person lives, and move there.
As the blue Republocrats were waiting to anoint Mrs. Clinton, the red ones were not idle. Somehow, they managed to propel one Ted Cruz to the Senate. Now, this writer has spent very little time in Texas, but found it to be a pleasant place. How its citizens managed to elect Mr. Cruz is anyone’s guess. By all accounts, even his senate colleagues detest him. So, the next best thing, once Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, etc., etc., all dropped out of a race in which they never had a snowball’s chance in hell of winning, was, apparently, the fresh-faced boy from Florida, Senator Marco Rubio. Unfortunately for those who threw their eggs in to that particular basket, Mr. Rubio had more than a little trouble winning primaries. But, they all said, just wait until the winner-take-all contest in his own home state; that would be a game-changer. And it was. Mr. Rubio was soundly defeated by the blowhard billionaire leading the pack, so he withdrew, saying that it was not ‘God’s plan’ that he be elected president this year. One does not wish to appear sacrilegious and second-guess deity, but this writer is convinced that God has no such plans for Mr. Rubio.
So where does this all leave the hapless U.S. citizens? Well, not in a very happy place, to put it mildly. There now seem to be three possible scenarios that they may face come election day:
Trump vs. Mrs. Clinton
The unfortunate voters can pick a candidate with no government experience, who has based his entire political career on the ugly trio of Islamophobia, xenophobia and homophobia. And to be assured of reaching and pleasing the most conservative of voters, he managed to interweave racism prominently with these three phobias.
Their Democratic alternative, Mrs. Clinton, has spent her career chasing after dollar signs, and catching many of them. She is beholden to every lobby and special interest group financed by the 1%. Human rights and international law are expendable commodities in Mrs. Clinton’s opinion, because their practice might offend some generous donor with a very large checkbook. For example, Mrs. Clinton will fully support the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, as long as Israeli lobbies continue to fund her.
Nameless Republican (Mr. Rubio, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, etc.) vs. Mrs. Clinton vs. Mr. Trump (let us remember that Mr. Trump has not ruled out a third-party run, if he is denied the GOP nomination).
Well, we are going from bad to worse here. Mr. Trump’s loyal minions are not about to jettison their beloved racist simply because he wasn’t anointed by the GOP. Hardly! The GOP is almost as much an enemy as that other Party, the one with the temerity to actually install a Black man in the White House. They will vote, in numbers of as much as 40% of all Republicans, for Mr. Trump, leaving the remaining 60% of GOP voters to pull the lever by the name of the compromise candidate. The result? A landslide victory for Mrs. Clinton, who will claim a mandate, and then proceed to reorder the world to her financiers’ liking. Let the blood flow!
Nameless Republican (see above) vs. Mrs. Clinton.
Assume, for a moment, and this is certainly a stretch, that Mr. Trump is denied the nomination, and graciously decides to support the Republican nominee (this writer told you it was a stretch). His supporters will not be so easily swayed; after all, they will not all have been promised a cabinet position within a Nameless Republican administration. So, they stay away from the polls in droves.
Nameless Republican has little appeal; how he, or possibly (although not likely), she, got the nomination is nothing anyone wants to study too closely. But there he/she is, debating the slick and polished Mrs. Clinton who has been auditioning for this part for twenty years. Republican wallets remain closed to him or her, as this candidate satisfies no one, but is merely a name to put on the ballot opposite Mrs. Clinton’s.
But the Republican checks will still written, just this time for Mrs. Clinton. She will be every bit as good for business as anyone proud to call him or herself a Republican, and the campaign for the presidency will be the time to assure that Mrs. Clinton is obligated to everyone who holds the purse strings. Her corporate donations will skyrocket.
Additionally, Mrs. Clinton’s own backers, wanting that mandate that she will claim regardless of the size of her victory, will open their money taps, and the gold will pour forth into her campaign coffers. And, as someone does every four years, their candidate will buy a lease to the world’s most exclusive real estate.
Mr. Rubio, in decrying Mr. Trump’s rush to victory, commented that ‘U.S. democracy is the envy of the world’. One wonders if he actually believes that fairy tale, or if he just knows it plays well to the far right. ‘Democracy’ is not for sale, but what the U.S. has certainly is. Elections go to the highest bidder, and even Mr. Trump’s personal fortune will be insufficient to defeat Mrs. Clinton. This entire election farce is a tragedy from which the world will suffer.