What can I say? Nothing coherent, that’s for sure: The ballot for the Democratic primary arrived in the mail — I always vote early (but, alas, never “early and often”…). It is, in a word — the only coherent word I can muster — depressing.
Who to vote for, who to vote for, whom to vote for???
Personally, I don’t care much for Hillary Clinton. I don’t trust her, don’t believe a thing she says.
On the other hand, neither do I believe for an instant that Bernie Sanders can win the Presidential election. Say what? A guy who willingly describes himself as a socialist? Not. A. Chance.
Sanders’ message, by and large, is morally and probably factually right. But there’s no way he’s going to win a majority of American voters. Give me a proverbial break! This is not a country whose people vote for the good guys. That hasn’t happened since 1960.
If the Republican candidates weren’t SO toxic, I would vote for Sanders on principle. But given what will happen if a candidate who’s even faintly sane, even vaguely ethical, even sorta-kinda pretends to a person of good will loses to a right-wing lunatic, the main factor for Democratic voters has to be which one can win against a Republican?
And really… I don’t know. Conservatives and even some moderates revile the woman. Those of us who think of ourselves as moderate to kinda liberal suspect her. But I fear that an avowed socialist will bring out droves of conservative or moderate-to-conservative people who would not ordinarily be bothered to vote.
Wouldn’t Hillary have the same effect? I doubt it. Those who dislike her have disliked her for so long she’s part of the wallpaper.
A socialist, though? Definitely the elephant…uhm…the donkey in the room.
The election of an extremist to the White House will herald the end of the American hegemony. Many people think that will be a good thing. I don’t. Having grown up overseas and seen something of the world, I can’t escape the thought that the alternative to American hegemony is something far worse.
Yes. The Greek empire came to an end. The Roman empire came to an end. The Ottoman empire came to an end. The empire of Genghis Khan came to an end. The Spanish empire came to an end. The British empire came to an end. And of course, the American hegemony will also come to an end.
But I’d just as soon not be here to witness it. Nor do I want to cast a vote that will hurry it along.
I’m with you “funny”….it’s just darn depressing….In the whole Country these are the choices we have for our highest office?….And like you I don’t trust Hillary as far as I can throw her….I’m still back at “Whitewater”…. and the thought of Bill Clinton having contact with interns at the White House makes me physically ill…As for the other side, it doesn’t get much better. Mr. Trump seems to think he can “bully” and insult his way to the Presidency against a mediocre field of candidates. I really liked Ben Carson until he “stretched the truth about a West Point appointment” that he supposedly declined….Judging from the polls it would seem a lot of other people had a problem as well. Because of this I’m leaning toward Mr. Sanders. To me he seems truthful and a common sense sort of guy who has the ability to analyze a situation pretty well. Of course this is all for naught if Congress doesn’t work with the President. Truly this is an election full of “angst”…
{hyperventilates} And did you see THIS thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-party.html
The Republicans think they’re screwed if Trump gets nominated, but the craven bastards seem impotent when it comes to doing anything about it. On Feb. 19, Paul LePage, from Maine, launched into a rant to the effect that the end of the world was coming of Trump won the nomination. Yesterday the same worthy said Trump could be ““one of the greatest presidents.”
Augh augh AUGHHHH!
Then there’s this Politically Incorrect thought:
Hillary is 68. Sanders is 74.
In four years, Sanders will be almost 80 years old! If a miracle happens and he lives that long and then another miracle happens and he’s re-elected, he’ll be 82 years old by the time his term ends.
At 68, Hillary will be 72 at the end of her first term, IMHO also too old to be President. She would be 76 at the end of a second term, if she managed to get reelected.
Trump is 69, though. None of them should be in the White House, come to think of it.
Godlmighty, at 70 I need a beeper to find my car keys! I wouldn’t remember to go to church if I didn’t have iCal sending me messages reminding me to get dressed and get in the car!
When you reach about 70, your brain just doesn’t operate very well, even if you ARE one of the elite and the hypereducated and the jet-propelled. Look what happened with Reagan: he was showing signs of Alzheimer’s while he was in office.
The Republican candidates all start with something not unllike Alzheimer’s, only that seems to be their normal state of mind.
You bring up a great point about age, the Presidency and how times change. I remember when Ronald Reagan ran and won. And especially the second time that his age came into focus on the campaign trail. And of course RR won the election IMHO with his retort during the debates and commenting on his opponents “inexperience” during his re-election campaign. And like you it troubled me that he was “mentally aloof” at times. Man…Sanders is 74 and Clinton 68….and Trump is 69?….Yikes…And to think that Kennedy got elected at such a young age….Maybe Rubio is our guy!!???
If only he weren’t batsh!t. Which is better: senile or crazy as a loon?
I wonder what elections would look like if people stopped voting for someone just because they thought the candidate they preferred was not electable?
Prob’ly a lot like they look right now. A shocking number of Americans don’t bother to vote.
A-n-n-d, just to stand your hair STRAIGHT on end, I have a friend who’s announced he’s not going to vote at all!! It is, he says, his way of protesting the entire gummy mess our national politics have become.
See what I mean by GAAAAAHHHHH?
LOL! BTW, remember: I haven’t _started_ voting for either Bernie or Hillary. I voted for Bill Clinton, not for his wife. Can’t stop voting for someone I never voted for in the first place.
Here’s my prediction as a non-combatant Canadian. Trump will win the Republican nomination, forcing the moderate rump of the party to finally break away, effectively form a third party (the Federalists?). They will nominate a reluctant Michael Bloomberg as an independent candidate, and four years later, the US will officially join the rest of the democratic world by adopting a multi-party system. I’ve said it for years, the Americans are a great people, sadly prone to a short list of character flaws. The two-party system is the easiest one to get rid of.
LOL! Joining the civilized world is agin’ our principles!
OK Funny…..Super Tuesday results are in and the “Trump Train” keeps rumbling on….I swear for the life of me, I can’t imagine him or Hilary as President. After some reading about the Trump appeal….it seems he has locked into “the Angry American” aaand it seems this group is most likely to vote. I just don’t see how the Republican Party survives no matter what happens with Trump. And why do I as a voter want more than ever to see Mr. Trump’s income taxes? And if he does release his taxes….what happens if it shows he pays less than his “fair-share”…or nothing. Does his run become a mirage?
Horrifying, isn’t it?
I expect if the sheeple who vote for him learn he doesn’t pay his taxes, they’ll figure that means he’ll come up with a scheme so they won’t have to pay taxes, either.
For example, cutting wages even further, so no one in the country qualifies to pay taxes…
Wanna say he’s crazy, but he’s crazy like a fox. (Heh…or Fox, upper-cased?). He’s the most craven demagogue this country has seen in years, and possibly ever at the presidential level.
He plays to all the paranoias and all the aggravation that make middle-class and working-class whites in this country crazy: suppression of our innate racism, suspicion of anyone who’s different from us, disgust at knee-jerk political correctness, frustration with nanny regulations that make it impossible for you to open a bottle of cough medicine for godsake, rage at women’s reproductive freedom, suspicion of the professional political class (which, alas, is what it takes to run a government — would you hire an amateur to run a corporation or a hospital?), fear of terrorism, fear of immigrants, fear of globalization, fear of another economic crash, despair over our palpably slipping standard of living…you name it, the guy exploits it.
Scares the ess-aitch-aye out of me.
I’m with ya on Mr. Trump….The guy left a bunch of bills unpaid in Atlantic City….so often that no one would work for him…Which is where I’m thinking the workers from Poland came in to play. Don’t know about you but I like to see the President come from a background where they have managed a large city or state. They will then have some inkling as to how government works. Clinton, Reagan, Bush II all had such backgrounds. I wonder if Trump can be turned away at the Convention? And if he is, will he pull a Ross Perot and split the GOP vote with a third party run, assuring a Clinton victory. What a mess!!!