Last week, the Michigan Chronicle endorsed Hillary Clinton as our preference for who we wanted to see prevail in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. We made no endorsement on the Republican side for what should be relatively obvious reasons; there are bad choices, there are really bad choices, and then there are choices which no one should ever be forced to make.
Choosing between frontrunners Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio was one of those choices that was really no choice at all. There simply is no sane reason to endorse any one of them for any reason whatsoever. As for Ohio Governor John Kasich, he is certainly more sane than the rest, but it’s hard to rationalize jumping on board with someone whose ship isn’t just sinking but is chugging along at the bottom of the ocean.
More than any other presidential race in my lifetime, the outcome for 2016 could truly make the difference between American progress and American meltdown. One only has to compare the content of the Republican presidential debates to the Democratic presidential debates to witness just how vast is the chasm between the two major parties. One debate generates headlines centering around issues that actually matter, while the other generates an embarrassment of riches for those residing in the lowest common denominator, including frat boy discussions about penis size, moonlight dancing with the KKK, and an overall loving embrace of hatred and intolerance.
Donald Trump remains the Republican frontrunner, and despite assorted ever-hopeful editorials and polls purporting to show that The Donald’s demise is about to happen any minute now (just you wait and see!), The Donald continues his push ever onward towards his goal of adding the presidency to his wall of trophies. He is the perfect candidate for this era of infotainment where showbiz reigns supreme. Trump’s dominance and ascendance represents the natural evolution of a Republican party that saw fit to embrace the extreme right wing ugliness of the Tea Party as an answer to the election of President Barack Obama and is now in freefall into the screaming abyss they dug for themselves.
It’s interesting to read this analysis from the Feb. 27 edition of The New York Times, which explored the degree to which Trump’s rise is causing all sorts of heartburn and panic within the Republican party:
“At least two campaigns have drafted plans to overtake Mr. Trump in a brokered convention, and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has laid out a plan that would have lawmakers break with Mr. Trump explicitly in a general election.
“Despite all the forces arrayed against Mr. Trump, the interviews show, the party has been gripped by a nearly incapacitating leadership vacuum and a paralytic sense of indecision and despair, as he has won smashing victories in South Carolina and Nevada. Donors have dreaded the consequences of clashing with Mr. Trump directly. Elected officials have balked at attacking him out of concern that they might unintentionally fuel his populist revolt. And Republicans have lacked someone from outside the presidential race who could help set the terms of debate from afar.
“[italics mine]Should Mr. Trump clinch the presidential nomination, it would represent a rout of historic proportions for the institutional Republican Party, and could set off an internal rift unseen in either party for a half-century, since white Southerners abandoned the Democratic Party en masse during the civil rights movement.”
For all those who year after year have been relentlessly praying to the skies above to be delivered from their woes by the Almighty Outsider, the non-establishment candidate who knows nothing about the establishment he plans to lead but who knows all about how angry they are about everything there is to be angry about, he has finally arrived in all his glory.
As the saying goes, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.
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