Hello folks, it's great to be back at IdiotFreeZone.com. I had to take a bit of a break from things for health reasons but I'm doing better now and looking forward to jumping right back in where we left off.
You can probably tell I've been a political uber-geek my whole life. Some of my earliest memories revolve around politics and politicians. I watched the Watergate hearings when I was 6 years old and even remember Cronkite on the CBS evening news with casualty numbers from Vietnam-Nam. I watch political scandals like sit-com's. And one thing I can tell you is, even if you include the whole Clinton impeachment thing, the republicans are by far the hands down winners at shooting themselves in the foot.
But nothing in my lifetime even comes close to the sheer joy I get from watching this 2016 presidential campaign. I can't stop watching. Nurses and other hospital employees were stopping into my room for updates all day and night. I'll admit - there are few experiences in life that can compete with watching the Bizzar-O reality show that has become the Republican Party. It's like being a witness at a 20 car pile-up - if all the vehicles were clown cars. I keep waiting for Cruz to come out on stage wearing those huge oversized clown shoes or Rubio to put on one of those big red bulbous noses and start talking immigration.
I have never seen a political party go schizophrenic before. Who could have imagined the GOP would try to distance itself from its own front runner like they are with Donald Trump. I mean - the party is actually discussing out loud how to launch a third party campaign against itself! Mitt 'Friggin’ Romney has been hauled out of the moth balls to try and talk some sense into republican voters! Mitt... Romney! WTF! I guess you really have to do something drastic when your looking at Trump as your candidate.
It's easy to see why the republicans are freaking out. Trump's party affiliation has changed many times over the years. Until 1987, he was a Democrat; then he was a Republican from 1987 to 1999 when he switched to the Reform Party. He stayed there from 1999 to 2001 until a presidential exploratory campaign with the Reform Party fell apart. From 2001 to 2009 he was a Democrat again. Then Mr. Trump switched back to the Republican Party again from 2009 to 2011 when he became an independent until 2012. He finally returned to the Republican Party in 2012, where he has remained, so far.
Donald Trump - What can I say? In the US we like to believe that anyone can grow up to become president. And we proved that a few years ago when we elected an alcoholic, redneck, coke addict, C grade average, war deserting, intellectual light-weight as president.... twice. But at least that guy had a pedigree, name recognition and the support of the Republican Party behind him.
Trump, who is currently the republican front runner, hasn't ever held an elected office. Essentially, he's spent the majority of his life in real estate and/or doing whatever it took to become a 'brand name'. OK, if this election was about increasing the United States market share or public image then 'sure', lets vote for "The Donald". But it's not. We're voting for the next president. You know, the guy with the nuclear codes. In this context, Trump telling North Korea "You're fired" takes on a whole new meaning.
How exactly does Trump become the odds-on favorite to clinch the republican nomination? Well, first of all, look who's running against him. Since the other 70 or so wannabe's dropped out we are left with only Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as any sort of competition. Yeah, Rubio and Cruz. Neither of these idiots are qualified to hold the highest office in the land much less the offices they hold now. They might make a second rate workers comp law firm in South Beach, Miami. But are we really considering letting either the "Cotton-mouth King" or "Super-Nerd" loose in the White House or sending them to the next G8 meeting? God I hope not! The only thing I can think of that's worse would be... Trump.
Let's recap: from the day Trump announced he was running this guy has made statements or taken positions that, a single one, by any other candidate, would have ended their campaign immediately;
He called Mexican immigrants rapists and promised to get them to fund their own containment cell, got fired from his own TV show, insulted John McCain's service record, advocated going after the families of terrorists, picked a fight with Megyn Kelly because she asked him a tough question then implied it was because she was on her period, boycotted a debate because they wouldn't pay him to participate, claimed he witnessed thousands of Muslims celebrating on 9-11, gave out Lindsey Graham's private phone number, thinks we should track Muslim travel like Fed-X packages, got into a brouhaha with the Pope, likes Sarah Palin and would probably put her in his cabinet, called Ted Cruz a 'pussy' (Technically, at least this one's true.), claims to be a billionaire but in a sworn deposition admitted that his understanding of his own net worth was 'based on how he felt' and it changed from day to day, tells everyone that he is paying for his campaign 'out of pocket' but the way the process works is that he loans money to himself and that the party will pay it back, and finally, he claims to support 'traditional marriage' and has.... three different times.
These things are just the gaffe's associated with him running for the presidency and do not address the blunders Trump has made as a business man. Blunders such as - Four separate bankruptcies, Trump Airlines (home of the gold plated toilet), Trump Steaks (marketed thru The Sharper Image!), his 'birther' phase and his "Bromance" with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, promoting the idea that childhood vaccines cause autism, "Trump; The Board Game" (or, more accurately The "Bored" Game), Trump University and many, many more.
Is it possible that we are witnessing the self destruction of the Republican Party? One can only hope. Although I'm pretty sure what we're seeing is more a measure of this generation of Americans and our immature, short attention span, small minded, me! me! me! mentality. Either way, one down. One to go.
Can half of the country really be so ignorant as to elect this cartoon character president? What happened to us? This country used to stand for something. We waged war on poverty, not poor people. We stood up for grand and glorious causes. Fought for what was right. We sought out knowledge - we didn't hide from it! And we never looked the other way when we saw injustice. Now, we pick and choose what facts to believe. We have become a joke. And that pains me to the core.
Republicans - it is up to you. If you want to remain a viable party, you will figure out a way to dump the three choices you have left yourselves with and find some other legitimate candidate to run. Right now, Las Vegas has Trump leading his party to the nomination at 65% with Cruz at 24%, Rubio at 9% and Kasich at 2%. Think about that for a second. I'll wait.
Or are you really ready to prove to the rest of the world that collectively you have gone bat-shit crazy? Because, honestly, those are the only two choices you have.
I guess we'll find out soon enough.
EJK
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