A
quick look at the latest state polls today show that (disappointingly)
The Donald and The Hillery look to come out as winners after the big
Super Tuesday vote. What does this mean? To me it means that Bernie
Sanders is getting sandbagged by the Democratic Party establishment and Trump has tapped into a GOP redneckian voter mother lode. They, along with the centrist media (yes, you the the NY Times and MSNBC
to a lesser extent) long since crowned Hillary as the Democratic
Party's heir apparent. However so sorry, the Repubs did not get their dynastic choice, Brother Jeb,
It's
too bad that some of the more progressive young(er) guns in the Demos (like
Sherrod Brown for instance) have not had enough fire in their bellies to
at least step up to bat for poor ole Bernie. Or even better yet run on a FDRian platform. Of course for most of his
career Bernie Sanders wasn't even a member the Democratic Party being to far to the left on our truncated political spectrum.
Unfortunately The Donald looks unstoppable at this point. Hope I'm wrong. Despite the fawning
pro-Rubio interpretation by the punditry and the spun mainstream news accounts of last
night GOP food fight with its Elvis Presley prepubescent fan type
pro-Rubio squealers, Donald marches on. As loathsome as The Donald
is, taken alone and compared with the other 'turds in the toilet' - Cruz 'n
Rubio, he is actually a refreshing alternative. With his strange almost comical
orange hair and standing head shoulders above the shrimpy Marco Rubio, he
looked to me almost heroic last night. And as far as I could tell he gave as
good as got (and I saw no “sputtering”). What I did hear was an audience
salted with anti-trumpites that squealed at every pre-programmed
Rubioesque insult aimed at The Donald. Of course the real contest is
between the hated Cruz and adored Rubio for the big buck buckaroo's financial largess.
The Repub financier are terrified not that The Donald could become an American
Mussolini (which is distressingly possible) but that he might emerge as some kind of Republican version of Huey Long. More than his intemperate statements they hate
that he strays off their ideological reservation whenever he pleases
(Planned Parenthood, Iraq, single payer healthcare). While Ted Cruz is considered too rigid ideologically and the non doctrinaire Trump ideologically off by a country mile, someone like The Rubio is the ticket. He can be easily
steered where he needs to go (as The Jeb could have been).
The
problem for the Demos is that The Donald if he prevails as the
Republican presidential candidate he could if necessary very easily turn
hard right and become an ersatz Ted Cruz, or even worse for the Demos suddenly become a Mr Malleable, Marco
Rubio. Right now during primary season The Donald is smart enough to
play to the rabble that the Repubs have used (and abused) for so long.
The question for Paul Krugman and all the Demo stalwarts who are backing
HRC is: is she already damaged goods? Can she beat a well financed,
polished version of The Donald? No Repub voter will ever cross over for her.
She is everything every Repub loyalists hates in a Democrat: Republican-lite. The Clintons essentially appropriated the GOP's moderate to left wing. Bill Clinton
triangulated and eliminated AFDC undermining the right's resonating anti-welfare state
meme and actually reduced the Dreaded Deficit yet they are Democrats. Can you imagine a disgruntled, underpaid, white working class, 2nd
Amendmentite ever voting for HRC especially after her attacks on Sanders over
his so-called pro-gun voting record? That on top of her unappealing (to me) whinny, know-it-all, ultra feminist style - and now topped off by her
(newly minted) 'dyed in the wool' liberal persona. The Donald will have a field
day playing the non-pol outsider who is coming to town to clean house.
In the “big one” when many Americans actually vote it's been
the non-aligned so-called independents, the Repub cross overs and
(unfortunately) the low-info voters most susceptible to well designed propaganda
(and there will be lots of it) who will again decide the election.
That is assuming the actual vote counts are honest which they have not
been in the past especially in some crucial swing states.
I
hope the bosses of the Democratic Party knows what they are doing throwing
their full weight (and super delegates according to the NY Times) behind
HRC. The Repub establishment is afraid that The Donald, after his
anti-Mex and Muslim tirades and demonizing will bring out the
minorities in full force for the Demos whether the Demos run against an
easily red baited admitted “socialist” or a card carrying “liberal re-tread". The Demos are apparently counting on the
same thing by running a tired warhorse like HRC who some see as somewhat charisma
challenged. But the Demo party is divided - almost half prefer Sanders. The Demo party's left (which is almost half) believes
the Clintons fostered the scourge of neoliberalism and therefore contributed greatly to
the present state of economic inequality and banksterism (and HRC's chummy relations with Wall Street all but verifies it), while the
Demo party's center and right focus only her husband's performance relative to the economy to that
of his successor the hapless and disgraced Republican George W. Bush.
A
HRC-Rubio match up would be best for both the Demo and Repub plutocrats
as it will assure them that it will be more or less be business as usual whomever wins. That is nothing much will get done (the Demos can always use the filibuster to forestall the worst Repub excesses) and the flow of wealth will continue
upward. But this is no doubt too glib of a view. Any Repub in the Whitehouse from Kasich through to the rest would be a total disaster. Their entire political party lost touch with any semblance of a humane and rational approach to the 20th century much less the 21st century decades ago. Having them in charge of all three branches of government would truly be the beginning of the End Days.
The
best outcome would be a Sanders-Trump match up. Sanders and Trump both address
the reality of our present situation. Sanders is an experienced, well
informed, respected left of center senator. He clearly represents a
departure from business as usual and in office would zealously pursue real change (whether he would be
successful until the composition of Congress changes is another matter).
But does anyone believe that the Tea Party infested House of Reps led
by Ayn Rand admirer Paul Ryan would cooperate with Hillary Clinton any
more than they would with Bernie Sanders. On the other hand Donald Trump
for all his faults at least has the gumption to propose (albeit bogus)
solutions to real problems and is his not beholding to the
institutionalized stupidly of the present day Republican Party. He has his own patented version which Sanders could deconstruct. With
Trump people sense a sort of blustery authenticity that they don't see in the pack of phonies and hacks running for Prez as Republicans. An honest
argument could result. In a debate some people might even be drawn from
Trump to Sanders. Alienated white working class males who relate to the
'take no prisoners' style of Trump might see Sanders as a more reasonable
alternative and one who has a real plan for real change not just empty bombastic promises. Sander's authentically radical platform (at
least by today's standards) is much more appealing than Hillary
Clinton's patently opportunistic feign to the left.
It seems it is time for this kind of high stakes confrontation between these two populist outsiders. But who knows many months and many surprises await us before November.
