The race for the nomination for the White House is still in full swing. On the Right, Donald Trump pretty much has the votes locked up. Ted Cruz is tripping over himself chasing after him, with John Kasich very distant and hopeless third.
On the right, Hillary Clinton pretty much has the votes to be the Democratic nominee over Bernie Sanders.
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." - Hillary Clinton, circa 1993
Can you imagine the outrage if Bill Clinton says the same thing?
The political class Republicans hate Donald Trump, and they are looking for a reason, any reason, to deny him the nomination. This is somewhat understandable since he has not really been a Republican and many of his historic social views have been pretty far left. Having come up in private industry with his political role mostly as a donor, the Republican elite see him as distasteful, he hasn't paid his dues. This is probably something the left should pay attention to. It would not be impossible for Trump to continue his wild-card streak and govern from a viewpoint left of Clinton if elected.
I'm personally convinced Hillary Clinton is being handed the nomination on a server platter by the Democratic political elite. The idea that in an open-year election, there was so little interest in becoming the Democratic nominee is absolutely ludicrous. Bernie Sanders serves as a good, never-win opponent; a self-described Democratic Socialist never had a chance. He also serves the role of making Hillary Clinton appear to be a moderate, despite being left of a Democratic Socialist on some issues. Nice planning. The fact that Sanders is doing as well as he is only shows the real problem the public has with Clinton.
The press, the left and many on the right were quick to blow Donald Trump off as a blow-hard, reality-TV candidate ... until he started to win. His base is still being written off as "just a bunch of white uneducated males." In a world where every minority is a protected class, the only group that can be rounded up and ridiculed, written off and ignored is the boring middle class. Trump has definitely tapped into something here. And deciding that it is a voice that doesn't matter is quite sad. It is hard to see Donald Trump ever being elected in a general election, but that shouldn't discount the voice of people who see something wrong, even if it is an unfashionable wrong or the blow-hard solutions are unrealistic. The fact that Donald Trump thinks his election will be a steam roller in November, shows the fantasy land he lives in.
The Democratic nomination process is rigged to avoid a Donald Trump (or a Bernie Sanders). The Democratic Superdelegates are party insiders who can vote any way they wish and serve as a safety valve against the wrong kind of candidate - ie the candidate the people might choose if given a real choice. In a more normal year, with several viable candidates that the politico glitterati can smile at, their role is minimized, but in a year with a lot of broken rules, Bernie has even less of a chance. Sadly, this situation seems to be accepted by the voting left. Sayeth the Superdelegates: Don't worry, no matter how you vote, dear voter, we know better. Democratic Superdelegates like to claim that their role is largely symbolic, so why not get rid of them???
Even with all this, I'm surprised at the number of people who will vote for Donald Trump; I'm equally surprised at the number of people who will vote for Hillary Clinton.
The reality is, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are exactly the same person. For the past 30 years as their feet hit the floor every morning they both have said, "What can I do to promote myself today." Donald Trump is actually pretty honest about this; he has no problem telling people how rich he is and how years of capitalist behavior has been to his favor.
Hillary Clinton has hidden behind a facade of working for the everywoman, while becoming fabulously wealthy in the process (and sometimes claiming poverty, despite being in the upper 0.1% of wealth holders in the Country). This can be best illustrated by what happened after Bill Clinton left office in 2001. Instead of going home to Arkansas, and there probably would have been respect if Hillary decided to represent her actual home state, she moved to New York, claimed to always be a New Yorker. New York is a much bigger, more powerful, left-leaning state than Arkansas. New York voting for a carpet bagger with a famous name says something about New York, and it is merely further evidence of the Democratic machine, and how much of that machine is controlled by so few.
There are voices of reason chirping in from the mayhem of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but the reality is far too squalid.
Much like Bill Richardson never had a chance in 2008, despite likely being the candidate who had accomplished much with little fanfare, John Kasich is all but sidelined at this point, his quiet demeanor hidden behind the Trump private jets and screeching of Hillary Clinton.
And that is what is missing from politics in the United States. There are no shortage of Uber-Type-A people screaming they are right and everyone else is wrong. This isn't exclusive to politics, the same situation exists anywhere Uber-As scream and yell above everyone else - basically everywhere. Nixon's Great Silent Majority still exists, and will always be the great silent majority; the listeners and doers who will continue on continuing on, no matter which self-promoting, dishonest narcissist is eventually elected.
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