Journal Captain Splendid's Journal: Inevitability 9
The base's grateful anointing of Trump in the last few weeks has been hilarious. I won't deny that, unlike pretty much anyone else, he really knows how to hit those sweet rhetorical spots, but this idea that he's the right man for the right job at the right time is grade-A bullshit.
Trump is going to be the Republican nominee not because he's awesome, but because everybody else failed hard. For starters, the perennial no-hoper contingent was the biggest ever this cycle with Jindal, Pataki, Graham, Fiorina, Gilmore, Huckabee, Carson, Paul, Christie and Perry. That's ten fucking useless candidates, there only to boost their speaking fees and maybe snag a cushy cabinet slot. I'll grant that, statistically, they probably had little to no effect on vote totals, but they certainly added to the circus atmosphere. In any other year, Trump would have been an early casualty, but with these idiots, as they slowly got ground out of the process, he got to hang on and look a little better by comparison.
Then you've got the big hitters, every single one of which failed miserably. We should be watching either Scott Walker or Ted Cruz laying into Hillary right now, but Walker proved to be such an embarrassment of a candidate that he made Rick Perry's 2012 run look good. Cruz, darling of the base, the most conservative politician on the Hill, apparently couldn't get his hands on that software upgrade that makes you behave like an actual human being.
And there's Jeb and Marco, different generations of beloved establishment candidates who apparently took all their campaigning cues from Scott Walker. I never thought the establishment candidates had as much of a chance this year as most did, but one of them at least should have ended up in the final two, not flame out spectacularly.
Let me put it this way: If a minor league ballplayer comes to Yankee stadium and homers all night, that's a big fucking deal. If, instead, he spanks the shit out of a little league team, we call a guy like that a douchebag, not a winner.
This is not an inevitable year (Score:1)
Which is my original prediction from two years ago still stands:
It will be Trump vs Sanders in November.
And Sanders will be the President.
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Which is a shame. Sanders vs Trump would be a horror movie for the oligarchs: "Whoever wins...we lose."
Having said that, I'm a lot more sanguine about that match-up than you are. The only positive aspect of that pairing IMO is that it would rob Trump of some of his narrative power. Instead of being the popular outsider, he just becomes part of a larger movement.
I could also see libs (and maybe even Dems) getting energized by Sanders being the nominee, b
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I understand your argument, but it's one that works for Clinton vs Trump. The Elites think America will choose her, but they're probably wrong.
Sometimes, when one doesn't stick one's head out of one's silo, one doesn't understand the true nature of what's going on.
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...the true nature of what's going on.
What, that people are nuts?
Speaking of Trump, it looks like the Philippines have one of their very own that just won, all on exactly the same "rebellious" spirit that the right wingers are riding into power in Europe too because the TV dinners are too cold.
Ah well, vote for the democrat and get more compromise and appeasement like always, buy ya another eight years, I suppose.
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Women, Hispanics, and everyone else that Trump has trashed are going to show up. I foresee a Democratic landslide no matter which candidate is nominated.
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In fact, in a Trump vs Sanders matchup, Trump *is the insider*.
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Jeeze you guys! They are both "insiders" to the extreme. Anybody who can't see through the Sanders charade is living with their eyes closed. He's a sheepdog, corralling money for the party, that has already endorsed Clinton, and he as likely to get the nomination as Eugene McCarthy was in '68, even if he received every vote from here on out.
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Sanders vs Trump would be a horror movie for the oligarchs:
Trump is part of the oligarchy, fooling everyone into thinking he's an anti-establishment candidate. Of course the rich will support him, especially if he's running against Sanders, who is their biggest nightmare.
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You are really dreaming if you think Sanders is "anti-establishment". If for whatever reason, Clinton can't continue, you will see a repeat of 1968 where the VP (who already picked his VP) swoops in, and wins. And back then the vote was a lot more lopsided. They should move the convention to Chicago, as a kind of an "Anniversary" thing. The déjà vu would be pretty strong, all over again.