Wednesday, March 02, 2016

OK, so Bernie only won 4 states, but it's all about the delegate count

Greetings, Dot Calm Readers
and fellow Truth Crusaders!

Life interfered with my plans to post what's become a typical format post today--it's all good because it included a wonderful visit with my best friend and sister from another mister--but all I have time and energy to post today is a brief (for me) political rant.

Here goes.

I was terribly disappointed to see Bernie win so few states on Super Tuesday, but remember--he's not out of it yet.

It's sad--according to my sources, Democratic voter turnout was lower in this primary than it was in 2008 (!). What's disappointing about this is that we have a real candidate of-by-for The People this time in Bernie. A lot of people were hoping that O'Bama would be more like Bernie, but I knew better: O'Bama is a good center-right old-school Republican--more like Eisenhower or Nixon than the blackheads, as Dot Calm used to call the Teanderthals and their immediate predecessors (because all of them wear their hair shoe-polish black). Now, I have nothing against center-right, but the Republicans have been dragging the country so far to the right that, if Reagan were to step onto the political scene tomorrow, the teabags would be stringing him up by his nads as a communist. So, in my humble opinion, we really need a Bernie to restore a modicum of balance to our benighted political system. We have become so inured to the right's thickly-laid propaganda that we forget how much easier it was to make a decent living as little as thirty or forty years ago.

I'm also concerned for Hillary as a candidate. Sure, I like her, and I think she would make a fine president--certainly worlds better than any of the hateful, bigoted buffoons brachiating around the Republican debate stages flinging poo at each other, everyone else, and even themselves in their own grinning ignorance. Martin O'Malley would make a fine president, too. But Hillary's hands are not clean. She changes her mind more often than most of us change our underwear. In contrast, Bernie has been consistent through the years, right down to marching with MLK, Jr., and even getting arrested in the name of promoting civil rights for people who didn't look like him or go to the same church as he did. (And why the hell didn't the Southern Blacks get that message? Does Hillary's brand recognition really mean so much more than Bernie's substance?) Hillary collects exorbitant speaking fees--like $250,000 from Goldman Sachs (how much more loudly can you scream "BIG MONEY"?)--and keeps it, but Bernie asks only modest speaking fees, which he donates to charity. If it comes down to a fight between "anyone" and Hillary, the Republicans are going to put up one dirty-ass fight and try to destroy Hillary in the process. And a lot of Democrats claim they will never vote for her, which means that they will never vote against the Republican if she's the Democratic nominee.

Count another vote for the Republican.

The complicating factor, of course, is that, at this point, "anyone" isn't just anyone--it's Donald Trump. Fux Noise and the Republican establishment have been jumping through their own assholes for decades to create the right-out-loud, IN-YER-FACE, AMERICA hatred, fear, and bigotry that swells Money Boo Boo's sails more each day. But now that they see the Trumpenstein monster they've created, they are starting to panic because it's looking more and more like Trump will be the Republican nominee. And, even though Trump shares so many of their treasured values like fear, hatred, greed, and bigotry, he's anything but an establishment Republican they can trust to do their bidding. Wasn't it disturbing yet amusing to see Chris Christie standing behind Trump like a shame-faced, bemused $10 hooker? Christie looked like he would never get the taste of that shit sammich outta his mouth. If only someone had cared enough to hand him a bag to put over his head--even a dirtbag bully like him doesn't deserve that much humiliation. Well...maybe he does--he did ask for it, y'know. How much you wanna bet he went home and ate three pizzas and a few gallons of Haagen-Dazs just to numb the pain of the shame of being Trump's cheap-ass ho? But I digress. Where was I? Oh, yeah--Trump vs Hillary. The crazy thing is that a lot of Republicans can't stand Trump and do not see him as a potential leader of the "free" world. So, pit that against the Democrats who can't stand Hillary.  What do you think will happen--will the Democrats vote for Trump and the Republicans vote for Hillary? It's a funny thought, but I doubt it...the Hillary-haters will just stay home. But will there be enough Democrats and Republicans who care enough about this country not to give in to ickle temper tantrums?  Do they care enough to save the world and actually vote for Hillary as the lesser of two evils compared to Trump?

That remains to be seen.

It really makes me wonder sometimes.

Maybe some Democrats really don't give a shit about the stakes. Maybe they're happy to let the planet fry in its own fossil fuel pollution as long as they stay true to their "anyone but Hillary" principles. Maybe, like the Tea Party Republicans, they'll be smugly satisfied punishing the whole country for generations to come as long as they can get their way. Maybe the Hillary-hating Dems really want someone to the right of Scalia to replace him on the Supreme Court--and maybe they want more like or right of Scalia over the next four years. Maybe they really don't care about minority rights. Maybe it's OK with them for people to be bullied, killed, or shamed into suicide over their skin color, religion or lack thereof, sexual orientation, or sexual identity. Maybe these Democrats really do think that women are just brood mares for the state who don't deserve the right to make decisions over their own bodies. Maybe they really do think that male Republican politicians know better than the women themselves or their doctors what's right for women's bodies and families. Maybe, deep down, they love all the saber-rattling and want a few more wars of aggression. Maybe they're looking forward to flushing public education and the public commons down the Republican toilet. Maybe "President Trump" would be a relief for these Democrats--they wouldn't have to pretend any more that they're any less hateful and bigoted than the ignorant white trailer trash who think Trump is the second coming of Jesus. Maybe they're all really cut from the same cloth but just haven't admitted it out loud to themselves yet. Maybe not...but maybe so.

Unless they prove otherwise by voting in the best interests of this country--which looks like it's going to mean voting for Hillary, like it or not (not that I like it)--this is how the rest of us will view them.

What's really sad is that, every phuquen election cycle, it comes down to this: voting for the lesser of two evils. Bernie is the only real chance we have at having a real representative in the highest office in the land in a very long time.

Are we really so stupid that we won't take that chance
--that we won't grab it with both hands?

And if we are that stupid, are we really so stupid that we're willing to throw away a hundred years of social progress for women, minorities, LGBTQ, etc. and a few hundred years of science so that creationists and dominionists can dictate what is discussed in our media and taught in our classrooms? Don't we care that keeping our technological edge means knowing and using science, not superstition? Are we so stupid as a nation that the truth doesn't even matter any more?

Is a temper tantrum really worth taking risks this great--not just for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren?

Are we really so enamored with the Dark Ages that we're lusting to go back or destroy the planet trying?

As my brilliant bestie and I discussed the whole Trump situation, we kept asking ourselves, "What on earth must the rest of the world think of us? They must think we have lost our ever-lovin' minds...!"

Well, some of us haven't. But, as for the rest of us, ...

Oi....