Trump, Sore Loser

One of the things that makes America great, and yes, it is still great, is our election system. Although far from perfect, it is among the best in the world and has never had a serious issue with vote tampering. Yes, there have been isolated incidents, but most of the experts in this field agree, that small instances of voter fraud have never swayed an election.

Donald Trump knows this, and he also knows he is losing the election. And rather than admit he is losing, he is preparing his fans by throwing around irresponsible allegations like the election is rigged. That would be like two minutes before the end of the Super Bowl, the losing coach starts alleging the game referees were corrupt and the game was rigged. That would be called, and rightly so, unsportsmanlike like behavior. What Trump is doing is way more serious that being unsportsmanlike. He is putting into question our whole democracy, implying that it has existed for over two centuries based on lies.

This puts in question the elections of Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, and Franklin Roosevelt, to just name a few.

Every election in the modern era has ended with a well articulated concession speech by the loser. It is traditional that the election is not considered over until the loser concedes. This is a courtesy that also ensures the continuity of our government, that our change in government is peaceful and orderly.

Trump is doing everything to encourage his supporters not to accept a Hillary win. What he intends to do with this, nobody knows. The pundits speculate that he needs to keep his supporters hot so he can bilk them for more money. After all, Trump is all about the money, so it would not surprise me if Trump will concoct a scheme where he will take advantage of his supporters one more time and come up with a scheme whereby he makes a few more million since no legitimate TV network will touch him.

Whatever the case may be, it is a national disgrace for a candidate for President to allege widespread voter fraud to a public who is willing and ready to think the worst of their own country.

As for his accusation that the media is lined up against him, it is estimated that the TV networks gave Trump three billion dollars of free media when he started. He never complained about that, actually bragged about the great ratings he was getting. But now that people have seen him up close and personal, virtually every newspaper in America has refused to endorse him. And that bothers him to no end because his fragile ego cannot take it. Fortunately, we will never know what a disaster a Trump presidency would have been. Trump himself is telegraphing his own defeat with these spurious charges of "rigged" elections. Usually sore losers wait until the end of the game to proclaim they were robbed. Trump, always the maverick, is telling us in advance.

The Need for Political Parties

The Founding Founders got most of it right. But we cannot blame them for not being clairvoyant. There was no way one could expect luminaries like Jefferson and Franklin to foresee the rise of America as the world's dominant power with a military second to none.

Their Libertarian/Liberal version of their newly created country made sense at the time. In no way were they Conservative, as so many modern day Conservatives like to fantasize. The Conservatives in their day wanted to stay with England and keep things as they were. The majority of the Founders had Libertarian tendencies combined with a healthy dose of Liberalism. They were for minimal government and no foreign entanglements, but they were also for human rights. This created a paradox that cost America dearly. Libertarianism believed the government should not interfere with free trade and it allowed for such options as slavery. That worked until the human rights strand started to seriously re-examine the morally of human trafficking. We are still paying the price for this contradiction today.

Jefferson's dream was a modest agricultural country with no foreign "entanglements"

In it early history, America was a minor league entity, so this quasi-anarchy worked for a while. Much to the chagrin of the Libertarians, the country grew in size and the government grew along with it. The Civil War required massive investments in the military and by WWI America had become a country that our ex-masters were happy to see return as saviors. "The Yanks are coming..." they sang. We were no longer the sleepy agricultural community Jefferson had dreamed about. We were world players.

The Founders had little faith in the masses. For them, democracy was to be in the hands of the (male) land owning class, since land ownership was the ultimate sign of responsibility and power. A kind of elitist Libertarianism if you will. There are still students of American government who posit that American elites maintain our democracy and rule America. The best text for this view is the brilliant book by professors Schubert, Dye, and Ziegler, The Irony of Democracy. They argue that average people are inherently undemocratic and the institutions that maintain our democracy are run by elites. Also, it is the elite spirit that allows whatever semblance of democracy we have to thrive.

The problem these days is the masses are increasingly catching on to the scam.

Should we rejoice in this development? That the masses are slowly, but surely taking over their country? The answer, I'm afraid, is a cautious no.

GOP Chair Priebus unable to stop the Trump phenom

And that's where political parties come in. We are currently witnessing the dismantling of one of our two major parties, the Republican Party. The elites who run that party have failed to take control of their own party and therefore we are witnessing the take over of that party by insurgents led by a narcissistic walking catastrophe by the name of Donald Trump who has no business being anywhere near the Oval Office. Trump supporters are the descendants of people Jefferson feared would not be able to handle democracy well.

A similar phenomenon happened on the Democratic side, except in their case, luck intervened, and the leader of that revolution, Bernie Sanders, was not dangerous and quite benign. The Republic would not have been in danger should he have won the Presidency.

Since becoming a major world power, the United States had choices to make. Either evolve into a more and more democratic country with more choices for voters, thereby becoming more unstable or restrict the choices available to the public and have compromise baked into the candidates. This was only possible if there were a binary choice for President, which represented all the vetting the elites could muster and which would represent huge swaths of diverse thinking. This would insure better stability and stability was preferred over diversity because a great power cannot afford to be unstable. The diversity had to manifest itself within an organized party structure but be not allowed to grow on its own. That is why third party candidates have never worked since WWI.

Trump broke the GOP. Will it be rebuilt?

And before you pass judgement on stability, think about what stability has given us. Sure, America is far from perfect, but compared to what? Countries constantly on the brink?

And before you are ready to trash this argument, I will admit that Bernie was good for the Republic. He brought up issues that needed to be brought up. He made the elites take notice and that is a good thing. Even Trump shook things up among the Republicans. The problem with Trump is that he went too far. Trump himself didn't want it to get this far. The Trump campaign reminds me of Mel Brooks' timeless comedy, The Producers where two losers were deliberately trying to produce a Broadway flop and ending up with a hit on their hands. Trump has become his own worst nightmare. He is a hit. Let's hope the public finally gets tired of this farce before November. American needs its Republican Party back. If for no other reason to keep the Democrats on their toes.

The Problem with Bernie...

...is not Bernie.

Bernie is Bernie and will be doing his thing to the bitter end. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. Bernie is no longer fighting to be President, he is fighting for the issues he cares about. He will keep repeating those lines over and over again until we can recite them verbatim in our sleep. That's what Bernie does and God bless him for it.

Hillary wants to be President so she has to be cautious. She is the boring one, the mom who tells you to eat your vegetables. Nobody likes a bossy Mom. But the American people will eventually, begrudgingly, end up voting for her, if for no other reason than the thought of Donald Trump with his tiny finger on the nuclear button is too much for even Republicans to contemplate.

But there are some problems associated with Bernie. His supporters. Not all of his supporters, but enough of them to cause worry. I would put Bernie supporters into three main groups. There probably are more since the Bernie bunch is very idiosyncratic.

Bernie shows his enthusiasm

1. Bad Bernie fanatics - We've all come across them. They enjoy insulting Liberals much the same way Trump enjoys insulting Muslims. They are proudly the "Bernie or Bust" crowd. If Bernie doesn't get the nomination they will spazz out, not vote, or vote for Trump, or write in, or vote for a minor candidate who has no chance of winning. In other words, they are political suicide bombers. Not only are they a nuisance, but depending on how many of them they are could have an effect on the election, especially if it is a tight race.

2. Good Bernie fanatics - These Bernie fans are fervently pro-Bernie, got the t-shirt, are engaged, but don't feel the need to insult people who don't feel like them. They are more inclined to make friends, or try to convince people that Bernie's the guy. They rarely get negative unless someone attacks them or attacks Bernie. But they don't go out of their way to piss people off.

3. Bernie supporters - These folks support Bernie without crossing the line into fanaticism. They support Bernie but they will vote for Hillary if Bernie doesn't get the nomination. They do not yell cheater every time Bernie gets outmaneuvered. They understand politics at this level ain't beanbag and do not freak out every time the Clinton campaign pulls another rabbit out of their bag of tricks.

What we don't know is the percentage of each of these groups. It is very difficult to tell and/or measure. We can only hope that the majority are in the second and third group, but nobody really knows.

However, there is another big problem with Bernie, and again, it is none of his fault. The polls consistently show that Bernie beats Trump by a wider margin than Hillary. That is very true if the election were held next week. But, alas, no, the election is in November. What Bernie has never felt is the all-out onslaught the Republicans will wage against him. There is a reason that Republicans pretend they like Bernie. They are convinced it will be easy to pulverize Bernie in a general election. With Hillary, they're not so sure.

Because nobody has laid a glove on Bernie. First, most Democrats don't really believe he will get the nomination, and the Republicans desperately want him to get the nomination. Unfortunately, Bernie just has too many skeletons in the closest, a feast for the GOP oppo researchers. And no, Bernie is not a closet child molester, or anything sordid like that. What he is, and makes no bones about it, is a genuine creature of the Left. Where most of us have let go of all the commie scares of the 50's and 60's, there are plenty of folks who will react to Bernie's past.

And much of it is documented. Some actions have become OK, like his devotion to civil rights, and his frequent anti-war stands. But the GOP will dig out statements that make him look like an old-fashioned Communist. He has said nice things about Castro's Cuba, which is en vogue at the moment but only among the hip. But he has supported Daniel Ortega, of Sandinista fame, a rather unsavory character. He has also dabbled in other assorted left-wing revolutionaries from South America, and how easy would it be to twist his call for a "revolution" into sounding like he's for kidnapping and torture? And that is what is on the surface without any digging. How many nuggets are there for the Republicans to tar and feather him with? By the time the Republicans are through with him he will turn from a kindly grandfatherly type to a Pol Pot type who would murder millions of his own citizens. That's how the GOP wins elections.

Because if it were a straight up debate on the issues, between him and Trump, Bernie would win in a landslide. 

Trump was Right

A political gaffe is usually inadvertently telling the truth.

Donald Trump is not usually known for truth telling, but ironically, when he told the truth about the consequences of making abortion illegal, he got himself in some hot water both with the pro-choice people and the pro-life people at the same time. That in itself was an amazing feat. But we are already used to the Donald being amazing.

It's not surprising that the pro-choice crowd was critical since he abandoned his life-long position, tuned in to New York, to pander to his Republican base, predominantly pro-life. But the real surprise was that he was unaware of the conservative Christian hypocrisy on the subject. When confronted by Chris Matthews on the subject he just simply followed the logic of outlawing abortion to its natural conclusion.

After all, if abortion is murder as is claimed by the pro-life movement, then it stands to reason that the perpetrator be found guilty of 1^st degree murder. But the current pro-life position is that the doctor should be the guilty party – after all, the doctor does the procedure. Except the woman in question is the one seeking the abortion, hardly an innocent party. It would be like letting a spouse off the hook if they hire a hit man to off their partner. Yes, the hit man did in fact pull the trigger, but he was just killing under contract. And yes, the contract killer deserves jail time, but the person hiring the trigger man is the one guilty of 1^st degree murder.

One could make the argument that much of the pro-life crowd is not that interested in making abortion illegal because it would complicate their argument. Today, they have the luxury of legal abortion so they don't have to deal with the consequences for the women. They can afford to be lenient towards women having abortions because they are not criminals, only sinful reprobates. They can have it both ways, take the moral high ground and not punish the perp. So the “abortion is murder” is merely a feel good slogan that has no meaning or legal standing. It is merely a value judgment.

However, when Trump was confronted with the real possibility of making abortion illegal, he had no choice but to follow the argument to its logical conclusion. If abortion is indeed murder, and is indeed illegal, then it follows that the women committing said murder (along with their doctors) should suffer the consequences of their crime. So the thought of a scared 14 year old girl who made the mistake of letting her boyfriend impregnate her, and then undoing the deed via an abortion and facing the death penalty might be too much for the public to bear. One can see why the pro-life crowd has a hard time dealing with that.

So we have the happy talk of no punishment for the “victims” of abortion. Can you blame Trump for being a bit confused? So he was forced to join in the hypocrisy lest he be forever shunned by the religiously correct.

Trump supporters are keen to say they are attracted to him because he is not politically correct and tells it like it is, unless, of course, telling it like it is conflicts with their version of political correctness. And in that case,Trump has to change his tune in a New York minute.

Trump still has a lot to learn about being a politician.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I get a real kick listening to pundits acting surprised at the rise of Trump. Especially the pundits of the right wing variety. Ever since Barack Obama got elected there has been a relentless onslaught on his Presidency. He had to be made a one - term President, according to Majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell. He is not a true American. He is Muslim. He is not Muslim but is pro-Muslim. He is a radical Christian who hates America. No matter that some of these accusations contradict each other. Obama is bad, bad, bad. He's a Communist. He's a Fascist. Even heard he was gay, and better yet, a gay prostitute.

It is amazing how gullible the American people can be! Actually, they are not that stupid, since according to the GOP alternate reality, the elections (both of them) were rigged just like all the numbers coming from the government are rigged. There are no new jobs being created, unemployment is not going down and we are getting our butt kicked all over the world. You get the idea.

What is amazing is that there are millions of people who believe this garbage. And can you blame them? All the sources they listen to, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Breitbart, Drudge, are all saying versions of this alternate reality.

Trump will make America "Great Again"

So why does it seem so preposterous that a reality TV star with a big mouth would base himself on this alternate view of the world? There are millions of natural constituents that are ready to swallow all this crap, and the Donald is just the unscrupulous guy to feed it to them. Donald didn't make all this stuff up -- he is just taking advantage of what other people have done.

Journalists like Megyn Kelly learned this the hard way. She tried to act like a regular journalist and got Trumped. You cannot clash with his reality and not be slammed. You might as well question his net worth or his taste in women. For a guy who claims he doesn't like Political Correctness, he is certainly touchy about himself.

Donald Trump is the monster created by all the Dr. Frankenstein's out there that enjoyed themselves at Barack Obama's expense. They painted a picture of the United States as going down the toilet due to an impostor in the White House and now we are reaping the benefits of this gigantic fraud perpetuated on the American people. It is so much fun to listen to the horror in the voice of people like Mitch McConnell who worked so hard to discredit the Obama administration now recoiling from the monster he helped create.

The GOP is reaping what they sowed, and now they have to live with the consequences. If they had not been so eager to postulate how terrible our President was, and how awful shape our country was in, they may have had a chance to nominate a reasonable character that was not based on "taking our country back," but rather taking our country in a new direction. As Sir Isaac Newton once said, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." We are witnessing the backlash based on all the lies told about President Obama. The chickens are indeed coming back to roost.

It would be easy to feel sorry for the GOP at this time, being stuck with the monster they created, but since most Republicans believe in the free market, they are living examples of the free market at work, a force they cannot control, and according to their own philosophy, the way things should be.

So Republicans, your actions have produced this result. You have reached the lowest common denominator based on essentially creating an alternate reality for your constituents. A bogus reality, to be sure, but a reality that millions of people have swallowed whole and are only exercising their right in acting upon this fake reality you have been so happy to promote for the last seven years or so.

Good luck with that, and maybe next time you might consider telling the truth. It might actually work for you.

And they're off!!

On the Democratic side we experienced what an insurgent campaign can do. How can you not love Bernie? In my day it was Gene McCarthy (Not be confused with the odious Joe McCarthy). Gene was a poet and soared with the eagles and us young folks wanted to fly with him except when the rubber met the road, Gene tanked.

Bernie making a point

That is not to say that Bernie is destined to tank, although history does not favor the revolutionary. At least not in this country that was born through a real revolution. Bernie is more down to the ground than Gene was but the dynamic is similar -- he appeals to the young and idealistic. Hillary, on the other hand reminds us of mother nagging us to eat our vegetables. We knew she was trying to help us but we resented her bossiness. Bernie inspires, Hillary perspires.

I still think the odds favor Hillary but it won't be a smooth ride to the nomination.

On the Republican side we have a real mess -- a disastah as the Donald would say. I am gratified that some voters followed my advice (A Totally Biased Evaluation of the GOP Field on this Blog) and gave some overdue props to John Kasich, by far the more qualified of the GOP assemblage.

The Trumpista in action

But Trumpism (I think we can officially call it Trumpism by now) is still alive and kicking. This is the first time the American public is flirting with a real despot.  He's not quite on the order of magnitude of Pol Pot, or Stalin or even Hitler,  but he is a junior member of that club. Trump has real fans, people devoted to him, oblivious of any of his flaws, his bombast, and his obvious disregard for the unwashed masses. But they love him nonetheless which is the magnetic attraction of wannabe dictators. I think the closest analogy is Argentina's Peron, and subsequent Peronismo. At great risk of really offending him we can also use the Spanish version of his movement and call it Trumpismo, which is the closest thing approaching his reality.

Kasich with his family

So the real question is will the GOP fall for this tycoon (he likes that name) and help us become a joke country like Argentina was during Peron, or come to its senses at the last minute and go with a decent human being like John Kasich. Only time will tell.

As for the other Republicans we have the GOP version of the suicide bomber in Chris Christie. He very ably destroyed the up and comer, Marco Rubio, but as most suicide bombers realize, they destroy themselves in the process so both Rubio and Christie are toast. Maybe Chris did us all a favor. Who knows?

As for Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, Ted is clearly looking for the hate vote.  But he is too obnoxious to become President.  He is intensely unlikable.  Not even his cute daughter likes him evidenced by his attempt to kiss her in front of the cameras and her recoiling with disgust. That says a lot about a man. If your own daughter cringes at you there is something very wrong here. Little girls are supposed to love their daddies.

And what about poor Jeb? At this point I have to feel sorry for the man. Not his fault that his brother was a doofus. He seems like a genuine nice guy. I don't think he would have any trouble with his kids kissing and hugging him. But he doesn't seem to be able to find that spark. And adding an exclamation point at the end of his name only reinforces the irony. I think Trump unfairly characterized him as "low energy" but the better portrayal would be "calm." And I don't think a calm commander in chief is a bad idea. Certainly better then the frenetic Trump who would shoot from the hip as much as he shoots from the lip.

The remaining GOP candidates aren't worth any ink as they do not factor in this race at all. They are better off going home and telling their grand kids they ran for President one day.

Donald Trump, Loser

Calling the Donald a loser has to be the biggest insult of them all. He's been called racist, misogynist, bigot, etc. and it only seems to make him stronger. As my Grandmother used to say, "What won't kill you will fatten you."

My wife and I were watching the returns from Iowa last night and we were openly rooting for Marco Rubio. Not that Marco is one of our favorites, but he climbed up to one point away from Trump. We were dying to see when he would tie him and then beat him by one point. It didn't happen but Marco milked it for all he could get. It was a moral victory for him and what I'm sure Trump was railing about in private that he was outgunned by two Cubans. After all those assaults on Latinos, here he was, surrounded by Cubans and losing to them. How traumatic can that be for the self described winner? Losing to people who are not even "regular" Americans, and one of them not even born inside the country! How humiliating is that?

You almost have to feel sorry for the Trumpster. Forced to eat crow on live TV.

Welcome to the real reality TV, Donald.

This is the reality TV you can't manipulate, direct, or create a happy ending for yourself. You may be able to bedazzle a gold-digger like Sarah Palin, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

It would be premature to write this as an epitaph but the warning signs are there if you pay attention to them. There should be bells ringing in your head, Donald. Red flags popping up. Reality and Reality TV are not the same thing. Actually, and I know this will come as a shock to many Americans, there is nothing real about Reality TV. It's just entertainment packaged a little differently. Kind of like professional wrestling which you are a master of.

Much to the chagrin of the conspiracy enthusiasts out there, the fix is not in. There are plenty of people wanting to put the thumb on the scales (you among many) but in the end, it still is the people's call. You can't bribe them all, Donald.

Will people realize their knight in shining armor is wearing fake armor and a rubber sword? Or will those who are still pissed off at "the man" (whoever he is) stick to you like glue and carry you to the promised land?

Stay tuned, folks because it will only get more interesting.