This Campaign This Damn Pain Part 7 - Far From Heaven

The campaign for President in the United States is like the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years looking to get to the Promised Land. Lots of kvetching about how long and tiring it is, about the heat and the sand and O God, will this ever be over? Then you get to the Promised Land, have a seat, admire the view for a bit, grab a bite to eat and then head out back to the damn desert to wander around for 40 more years, kvetching about how long and tiring it is, about the heat and the sand and O God, will this ever be over?

On November 8^th, 2016, America will vote for its next President. On November 9^th, 2016, eyes will turn to the campaign for President in 2020.

But we’ve still got the 2016 river of shit to wade through. At least the primaries are behind us at last. (Mostly. There’s one more primary to be held for the residents of Washington DC next Tuesday.)

This past Tuesday, Hillary Clinton closed the deal to become the presumptive Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Well, on Monday, the Associated Press jumped the gun and anointed Clinton as the winner based on its polling of super delegates. This irked the Bernie Sanders supporters like nothing else because, look, we told you the fix is in. Votes for Tuesday hadn’t been counted or even cast and the press is declaring Clinton as the winner a whole fucking day early? What shit is this?

To  be honest, the Clinton campaign was actually not all that happy with the Associated Press either. The last thing they wanted were for Clinton voters to become complacent and the Sanders voters energized, potentially leading to Clinton losing to Sanders in California. The polls leading up to Tuesday had Clinton ahead of Sanders by about 4 percentage points.

It seems the AP didn’t do too much damage: Clinton won California with a margin of 13 points over Sanders. Clinton won 4 of the 6 primaries. Mathematically, Sanders was already marginalized, too far back in the delegate count to have a chance to get the Democratic nomination. As of Tuesday, the hard cold reality was that Sanders was done for.

So Bernie Sanders gave a lovely and passionate speech that said he was still fighting for the ideals and principles he so fervently believes in but he was throwing his support to Hillary Clinton and encouraged all his supporters to do….

I know you’re not buying that shit, are you? No, Sanders defiantly declared he would press on to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to fight for the nomination there.

For the most part, people ignored this sad, angry man. Clinton welcomed Sanders and his supporters to the fold even as they refused to fold. And then Hillary Clinton turned her fire on Donald Trump.

It’s a strategy that Clinton has been employing for a few weeks now, even before the events of Tuesday’s primaries. Let Sanders rant and grouse over in his corner while she focused her attention on Trump. She had to be cool about it, though; she didn’t want to risk alienating Sanders and his followers by acting like she was the nominee too early. But with Tuesday’s decisive wins firmly putting the Democratic nomination in her grasp, Clinton could take the brakes off and really tear into Trump.

And Donald Trump was offering up some prime shit to tear into. His racists barbs at the judge overseeing the legal case against Trump University which in and of itself is a cesspool of lies and corruption that alone undermines any sense that Trump is even remotely qualified to be President. Meanwhile, Republicans are twisting themselves in knots over disavowing Trump’s offensive comments and questionable ethics while still maintaining their support for this jackass in his quest to become the next President.  (For more on that, click here for Tuesday's post.) 

For all his moronic statements, his lack of practical experience, his deficiencies in intellect, his questionable business practices and his complete ineptitude in diplomatic discourse, Donald Trump still remains a force to be reckoned with, despite all the negatives associated with him and perhaps even because of those negatives. There are too many people who actually like someone who goes with what he feels over what he thinks and has no filter on what he says. Apparently there are Americans who want a tantrum prone toddler as their next President.

Of course we must also consider that there are those who are less drawn TO Donald Trump as they are repulsed AWAY from Hillary Clinton. Some of it may be attributable to legitimate disagreement over policy but most are just so indoctrinated that anyone who is a Clinton or a Democrat or BOTH must be an American hating cocksucker, they wouldn’t vote for Hillary if Donald Trump shot at a puppy and Hillary Clinton was wounded saving that puppy.

To be fair, the best person to speak for Hillary Clinton is NOT Hillary Clinton. But now that the nomination is in the bag, the limits are off on other people who can make Hillary’s case better than she can. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, is a left leaning progressive whose supporters are mostly Bernie Sanders voters. But Warren can now help a fellow sister up and she knows how to tear into Trump with the best of them. And there’s President Obama who has stayed to the sidelines while the Democratic contests were still unsettled. Yes, there are those Fox News zombies who are convinced that Obama is a Kenya born communist who hates America. But Obama’s poll numbers are up.  In the waning months of his Presidency, Obama has taken on a new allure as Cool Dude In Chief. This is guy who knows that come next January, he’s done his time and he’s through with this shit.

Thursday, Obama released a video endorsing Hillary Clinton for President. He actually shot the video on Tuesday but waited until Thursday to release it until he had a chance to talk to Bernie Sanders first.

Now that was a classy move. Obama and Sanders had a meet up at the White House. Things apparently went well. Afterwards, Sanders spoke to the press. He was noticeably less angry. No, he’s not out of the race. But instead of saying he’s fighting on until the convention, Sanders said he was staying in the race through next Tuesday’s primary in Washington DC. Then he said he would meet with Hillary Clinton to discuss how they can work together to defeat Donald Trump.

If Bernie Sanders and his supporters will accept Clinton’s welcome to the fold, the divisions of the party will be on the way to being healed. And with that healing comes strength.  No, not everyone will be drawn TO Hillary Clinton but those repulsed AWAY from Donald Trump may feel they have somewhere to go. And in that scenario…

Donald Trump gets his sweaty orange, ignorant, racist ass kicked. And kicked hard.

Thanks for dropping by. There's another new post coming up tomorrow. Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Dave-El

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You