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Trump Taps the Rich Vein of Anti-intellectualism in America

Donald Trump loves him some poorly educated people. Of course he does. They make up the base of his supporters. Scammers, con artists, grifters, they all love the poorly educated because they are the easiest marks, the ones who, even knowing the 3 shell game is rigged, will play anyway.  On a larger scale, that same mentality explains why poorly educated Republicans continuously vote against their best interests in election after election, and why Southern red states are at the bottom of the list in every measure of economic viability and livability.

Anti-intellectualism is as American as apple pie, and Donald Trump has found that vein to tap, and it’s a rich one. Intellectuals are haughty Europeans sipping lattes and smoking pipes. Real Americans like to get their hands dirty and resent what they feel is the condescending attitude of the educated class. God, guns and guts are what America is all about, and Trump knows that mentality all too well.

Even the escalating language about “punching protesters in the face” and the real violence often seen at Trump rallies used against protestors is cleverly designed to appeal to the “poorly educated” and their Wild West delusions. Trump knows his supporters are sick and tired of whiny liberals and their political correctness. Debating issues is for wussies. Sometimes a fist to the face is the only way to settle a debate.

 

Trump recently said he could kill someone and not loose any support, and I think he’s right. Trump’s great triumph already is that despite being an elite billionaire from Gotham, he has become the emblem and icon of the poorly educated whites in America, the hideous representation of their frustration, anger and helplessness that this country is changing in ways they don’t like. Donald Trump is a master manipulator of people, using this talent to lead the Republican field of Presidential candidates. Will it be enough to win him the White House? These are strange and uncertain times.

The Democratic Party: Fighting For More of the Same

For all of the articles about the turmoil in the Republican Party over Trump’s successes in the primaries so far, I am much more concerned about what’s going on in the Democratic Party between Clinton and Sanders. The Party (the DNC, celebrity Democrats, the Whitehouse, the media, etc.) has already put the crown on Clinton’s head and is working overtime to make sure it stays there. From shady shenanigans at polling places to national headlines blaring Clinton’s inevitable victory to the Democratic National Committee’s unabashed support for Hillary, the Dem establishment is doing everything it can to make Bernie Sanders go away.

I find this all very troubling. Sanders truly represents what the Democratic Party should be about, but our leaders have been brainwashed over the years by Republicans into believing that only centrist, “realistic” (tough on crime, militaristic, fiscally conservative) Democrats can win elections. Sanders is already proving them wrong, and that’s making them very uncomfortable.

Since Ronald Reagan won the presidency 36 years ago, the Democratic Party has shifted to the right, believing wrongly that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Yes, we’ve won four Presidential elections since then, but look at the state of our nation. George Bush took this country down a dark and dangerous road after 9/11, and instead of trying to clean up the mess as he said he would, Obama has embraced it. Ever since he’s been on the national stage, Obama has talked like a liberal, but acted like a centrist Republican. Sanders is the only candidate who sounds and acts like a Democrat.

The Democratic establishment should be 100 percent behind Sanders, instead they are repeating the strategy that Bill Clinton and Obama used to win their elections: talk like a liberal until elected, then play it down the middle.  Hillary is the establishment choice, the “safe” choice, the choice that Wall Street and K Street can live with. With its actions this election cycle, the Democratic Party continues to willingly disenfranchises not only the left wing of the party, but other Democrats who simply want real change instead of Clinton II, with the attitude of, “Where else you gonna go?” The two major political parties have way too much say about who sits in the White House and it will take a major public upheaval to break their stranglehold.

Jeb Bush's America

Republicans Intent on Destroying America to Save It

Members of America’s Republican party must be suffering from some kind of mass psychosis, a party-wide mental breakdown that has negatively affected their already questionable ability to think beyond simply remembering to breath and eat. New Hampshire Republicans who went to the polls yesterday gave Donald Trump a large primary victory with nearly twice as many votes as the second place candidate, John  “Extreme-long-shot” Kasich.

What could be going on in those pointy little wingnut heads? Some possibilities:

- Republicans simply don’t care what Trump says. He’s big, loud and never apologies, and he makes liberals lose their minds. He’s perfect Presidential material.

- While few Republicans would openly admit this, many would be fine with a dictator like Trump. He looks, acts and talks like a third-world despot, and apparently that’s a turn on for a lot of conservatives. Also, Trump shows open disdain for the Constitution, a document many conservatives would love to torch and replace with the Bible.

- Republicans would rather destroy America than leave it in the hands of liberals. Some evangelical Christians believe we are living in the End Times, when true believers will be whisked up to heaven, and the rest of us will remain earth bound, re-enacting the The Purge. What better President to have in office than Trump who, through the sheer power of his stupidity and arrogance, could single-handedly bring about the end of the world.

Whatever the reasons, Republicans seem intent on destroying democracy in America and replacing it with something else resembling a dictatorship. A vote for Trump is clearly a vote against the America created by our founding fathers.

Yes, Ted Cruz is That Bad

This is without question the most surreal, Twilight Zonish election cycle that I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve survived 10 different administrations during my lifetime. We have a Democratic socialist versus a moderate, establishment Dem, and a cast reunion of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” on the Republican side. Of all the outrageous lies and accusations that have been spewed by Trump, et. al., perhaps the most telling moment of the campaign so far for me was an unscripted moment between Ted Cruz and one of his daughters.

No one likes Ted Cruz with the exception of a small sliver of neurologically underdeveloped white evangelical Christians, who wouldn’t care if he sacrificed a goat onstage and drank its blood as long as his speeches are peppered with the appropriate code words that all translate into “We privileged white Christians are under attack and we must fight back. I will lead our holy army.”

The Cruz problem that the rest of us have is that he’s a smarmy, self-righteous liar who will do and say anything to win the Republican nomination. Come on, you say, can he really be that bad? I respond confidently with, “Yes, he can.”

Witness one Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, a Republican Presidential candidate and family man with two daughters. The video was supposed to be a tender, “behind-the-scenes” clip of Cruz demonstrating his “warmth” by hugging his oldest daughter, but then reality struck. As Cruz approaches his daughter Caroline, she begins flicking her finger at him in an awkward, “Don’t come any closer” gesture. But father Cruz, not wanting to let the potential aw-inspiring ad spot be wasted, pushes toward the girl, smiling insanely, and then grabbing her as if she is throwing an uncontrollable temper tantrum. Caroline pushes against him with her hands until he finally lets her down, his phony smile disappearing as she runs away from him.

Wow. The members of your own family treat you like a creepy stranger. The problem for Ted is that the longer the election cycle, the more you get to know him and the less you like him. In recent interviews, even his college roommates and acquaintances dissed him for being an arrogant, religious ass.

All of the Republican candidates have their unique problems that should disqualify them from holding any elected office, let alone the Presidency, but as we see and hear more and more of Ted Cruz the man, it is becoming apparent he may in fact, be the worst of the lot. And that, friends, is pretty damn bad.

Random “After-the-Iowa-caucus” thoughts:

Very happy to see that Bernie Sanders did as well as he did against Hillary in Iowa. It’s especially gratifying to watch someone fight against the Goliath Democratic election machine backing Hillary and pull out a David-like win (with a virtual tie).  Historically, Iowa hasn’t been a good barometer for who will actually win the nomination, but it seems to me that if Bernie can generate the kind of enthusiasm and involvement he had in Iowa, he can do that in other states as well.

Cruz, Rubio and Trump come out on top on the Republican ticket, in that order.  Alternate media is having a field day with Trump’s loss to Cruz, but again, what happens in Iowa is not a reliable predictor of who will eventually win the nomination. Trump is still very much in the race, but we can relish his “loser” status for a bit.

Speaking of the despicable Ted Cruz, just today he sent out a mailer to his supporters that is so far over the op it’s not even visible by the human eye. Claiming America is “under assault” from Islamic fanatics, it has an image of the Lincoln Memorial with old Abe dressed up like an ISIS terrorist strapped with an AK47, scarf-covered face and large hunting knife in one hand. The fear mongering here is off the charts, with absolutely no facts to support his wild assertions. The copy is all sixth-grade bluster about killing the terrorists and restoring America’s greatness. Trump is a narcissistic blowhard, but Cruz is something even more evil and diabolical. His religious values are medieval and he seems to take them very seriously, and you know if he were elected President he would do everything in his power to turn America into a theocracy.  With Trump we’d at least get some entertainment value watching Richie Rich convert the White House into a casino.