So
far the upcoming presidential election is shaping up to be a really miserable choice.
On
the Democratic side we have Hillary Clinton as the “inevitable” contender,
despite a succession of illegal or barely legal activities that stretch back to
her husband’s administration. Does
anyone still remember the Rose Law Firm records of her billings that conveniently
“disappeared” from the law firm files , only to eventually be found in the
White House family quarters (and revealing that she double-billed many of her
clients)? And then most recently we find that as Secretary of State she kept her emails on a private server
in her home (despite the security issues) , and conveniently “erased” all the “personal” (ie- incriminating) emails
before she released the rest to the Congressional Committee investigating this
issue (shades of Nixon’s 18-minute gap?). In between is a whole string of questionable
actions which the press is conveniently ignoring for the moment. This is hardly the person I would pick to lead
this nation.
Then
there is Joe Biden possibly entering the race.
Despite his tendency to repeatedly say the wrong thing at the wrong
time, which made him a joke through most of Obama’s terms, compared to Hillary
he actually looks better, which is pathetic.
And
finally we have Bernie Sanders, a died-in-the-wool old fashion Socialist, eager
to turn the US into a European-style centrally-planned, centrally-managed cradle-to-grave
nannystate, despite the fact that Europe recently has been showing us just how economically
unsustainable such a state is.
On
the Republican side we have (currently) 17 contenders, of whom only one (Senator
Lindsey Graham, who is no more than a blip in the polls at the moment) accepts
the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real, and largely caused
by human activities. So the other 16 are either (a) scientific ignoramuses, (b)
dumb as dirt, or (c) simple opportunists who know perfectly well that the
evidence is overwhelming, but hold their position simply as matter of getting
votes from the far-right base and/or mollifying the energy companies that
contribute to their campaigns. None of
these options recommends them as potential presidents of this nation.
Then
there is the undeniable fact that Republicans these days seem to have forgotten
that this nation was founded on the principle of separation of church and
state, and individual freedom, and want to inflict on everyone their own, often
quite parochial and narrow-minded, religious
and moral constraints.
And
it boggles the mind that Donald Trump, a wildly-narcissistic, ego-driven,
publicity-seeking clown if there ever was one, is well ahead in recent polls of
Republican voters. It suggests that a lot of Republican voters are also dumb as
dirt, or at least that the rest of the field is so thoroughly unappealing that “the
Donald” looks reasonable by comparison, which is also pathetic.
Perhaps
things will change over the next few months and someone, either among this
crowd or a new face entering late, will look more appealing. But the choice thus far is pretty
disappointing. I am no fan of President Obama’s administration, but most of
these clowns, Democratic and Republican alike, based on what I have seen thus far, would likely make his
administration look good by comparison.
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