The Choice Before Us

I don't know where to begin. My news feed this morning has already been full of pessimism, cynicism, fatalism, apathy, and those are from the decent people. As I said in my last post I have stopped arguing with republicans and my friends are now basically self-sorted ideologically if you know what I mean. What I keep thinking I'd like to say to those republicans I don't argue with anymore though is "this time, just this time, it is time to say 'Enough' donald trump is horrible and you should not vote for him". But is there anything that can persuade anyone politically these days? Can anyone who hates liberals and Democrats actually say "whoa, this time the republicans have gone too far" and not vote, at the very least? I heard a report that a quarter of early republican voters in Florida are doing just that, can that be believed? If nothing else this election season, we should be aware of the fact that news media, especially cable, will never, ever be able to say "enough!" and treat the republicans like the rabid dogs they are. When trump or any republican candidate anywhere does or says something out of bounds, cable news will manufacture something, anything, the Democrat says as just as bad. And we, decent people of America, will just shrug and respond with pessimism, cynicism, fatalism, and apathy.

Sure, I'm a partisan. Yes, I am a Democrat and yes, I am a liberal and a progressive. But I am also a realist and I care about more than myself and my interests. In my lifetime, there has only been one choice in elections, the worst Democrat is always better than the best Republican. It doesn't have to be this way, and it really shouldn't but for a long time the GOP has not been a serious, responsible party. When that happened is still up for debate, but when Bill Clinton became president republicans went berserk. It was then that Newt Gingrich started coaching republican candidates to start using nasty language to describe their opponents like "disgusting, corrupt, anti-American, traitor, disgrace." It was also then that Rush Limbaugh unleashed his nasty Id upon the airwaves. Donald Trump is the logical culmination of this trend. The choice is so stark. Keith Olbermann put it so well that I have to share the video he posted this morning.

He's not kidding. What Trump has promised to do will end the republic. It will be the end of American elections. It will be national suicide and possibly nuclear war. And none of the republican trump supporters will believe it. No evidence, none of the man's own words will convince them. 

One fun little factoid that Bob Cesca announced on his podcast is that a Democratic president has not been succeeded by another elected Democratic president since 1857. So, if Secretary Clinton is elected she will be making history for being the first female American president, which is long overdue, and also the first time in a century and a half that policy issues will be consistent over successive administrations. It should have happened in 2000, the situation was similar. The eminently qualified vice president won the popular vote and should have succeeded Bill Clinton, but republican dirty tricks snatched the victory from Al Gore. 

Now, the real Hillary Clinton, as opposed to the fictional one created by Fox News and the right wing hate machine, needs no defense. It is only the relentless need by the disloyal opposition to destroy her that these fake scandals are never put away. She has unique experience as a former First Lady having actually lived in the White House, her temperament, intellect, and poise are very presidential. She has won elected office in her own right and oversaw very complicated foreign policy as head of an entire federal department.

The last eight years would have been much better if republicans had not obstructed absolutely everything and sabotaged the entire government in myriad ways. However, Barack Obama has done an outstanding job in spite of all those obstacles. Which, as Keith said, were entirely man-made and from the inside by a party of rabid monsters who now want us to put their chosen chief psychopath in charge of the very government they have repeatedly assured us they will destroy if given the chance. 

So, whatever your objections to Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party... Get Over It! They are the only grown-ups around. There is only a choice between moderate, serious governance; and oblivion. Trump must suffer an incredible defeat, and take down as many elected republicans as possible so we can finally put the GOP down and start over. We need a moderate center-right party of actual conservatives and a reform-minded center-left party, and that will only happen if the current crop of authoritarians and nihilists are shut out of the government they hate so much.