Friday, July 29, 2016
Post-convention thoughts: In a very strange, ultimately pivotal year in American politics, I think we're seeing the effects of a decades-long false narrative by the Republican party becoming unhinged. Trump did not take over the party; the Republican voters took the party over and decided to go with the guy who's tapping into their greatest fears. The white male ego is under assault and Donald J. Trump is the straw man who triggers their hysteria. He's turned the election into a race war of sorts. His only policies center around building walls, refusing entry for Muslims, and taking America back to a mythical 50s-era Leave-it-to-Beaver society in which everything worked for white people and people of color were not part of the narrative. No longer buying the social hot-button issues of abortion, gay marriage, and to an extent the storyline that big government and liberal policies are evil, the Bush/Rubio/Cruz voters couldn't compete with a primary strategy that used as its template the talk-radio talking points of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage, the negative, anti-immigrant rhetoric and populist demagoguery that Huey Long would have been proud of. At some point (maybe ten or so years from now), the Republican party will have to own their complete inability to conform to the changing demographics and the fact that there simply aren't enough white voters to win back the White House. 2016 has become a very subtle race/ethnicity referendum, and America will do the right thing, as it usually does when elections really matter. The Democratic party has played a strong game with what appeared inevitable just a year ago. Everyone knew it was Hillary's time; however, we can thank Bernie for revitalizing the party with his message of economic inequality and a totally rigged system that favors the winner-take-all approach to life. Bernie was never going to be the Democratic nominee (contrary to what polls were saying (and a few of the experts). We would have been positioned as being too extreme, too weak in international affairs, too socialistic, too left in the same way the Republican party is too right. But he gave Hillary a run for her money and actually forced her to become him on many issues. We got the best of both worlds, Bernie's platform supported by Hillary herself. It all worked out the way it was supposed to at the end of the day.
For the first time in many year, I actually believe America's best days are ahead of us. Even though we made one of the greatest military mistakes in history by invading Iraq and losing so much respect, treasure, lives, strategy, etc., we're still the undisputed super-power in the world with an unrivaled economy that's only going to get better. I would not bet against America right now, especially with another Clinton in the White House in 2017. For all the fear mongering and doomsday talk of the Republicans, I think things are turning around. They're looking good. I guess we'll see.
