It has truly been stunning to watch the changes in our country just in the past 20 or so years. Sheesh, the last 10 years. The way had been prepared, but the abruptness of the change was head spinning.
We live in a land where people call evil good and good evil. It’s truly like living in an alternative universe, although it’s probably more the norm for Christians through the centuries than not. We’ve been lulled into complacency in the U.S., a land that wasn’t truly “Christian” per se, but one that at least benignly accepted Judeo-Christian morality as being “good” and the ideal. It was in place, at least, as the generally accepted plumb line.
The wake-up alarm now ringing so loudly is jarring indeed. I hate mornings.
… Here’s what I suspect is coming whatever happens this year. Just as a portion of Republicans—nobody knows how big—will break from the GOP over Donald Trump, some percentage of Democrats, especially among the affluent will, in the next cycle, start to peel off from their party over its lurch leftward.
They will not be at home in a party of smiley-face socialism that threatens to become actual socialism. They will not want the American economy destroyed. They will not be comfortable in a party that supports the most extreme political correctness; they do not want their 10-year-old daughters using transgendered bathrooms with men. They will find themselves increasingly opposed to the political correctness that has swept the universities. They will have increasing qualms about spending $60,000 a year to have their bright, kind children turned into leftist robots.
So they will start to split off from the Democrats, and they will find the Republicans who split off in 2016, and together, in 2020 or so, they will attempt to create their own party. It will be pro-growth, moderate on social issues, more or less neoconservative in its foreign policy. It will be smallish but well-heeled. It will try to hold together and grow.
That is my prophecy. Everything is in play.
… (and on VP picks for both parties):
California votes June 7. A journalist this week speculated in conversation that if Mrs. Clinton underperforms or even loses there, it could be a gift. It will make her desperate. Presuming she goes on to win the nomination, her desperation might prompt her to make Bernie Sanders her vice presidential nominee.
Why not? It would hold the party together for this cycle. It would help keep Sanders voters, who often threaten to go elsewhere if Mrs. Clinton is the nominee, in the tent. It would also unsettle Trumpworld. They see Bernie supporters as potential Trump supporters in the general election, and Mr. Sanders as having an appeal that overlaps with their own. They see his outsider mystique and his appeal to the young. …
… Big ships need ballast to keep the ship upright, to keep it from tipping over when a high wave comes. Ballast is by its nature uninteresting. Mr. Trump needs ballast. He would benefit from a solid, uninteresting running mate.
Uninteresting would come as such a relief this year. It would be like the old days, when people were boring.
________________________________
Trump is likely to be puzzling us long after he finishes his second term in the White House (heh). Is he a would-be fascist, a mere authoritarian, a savvy “deal-maker,” or just an imperious narcissist? Or something else? ..
Robert Kagan’s Washington Post article (makes) the case that Trump is essentially a fascist. Fascism is a word that is hard to define with agreeable precision, and gets thrown around all too loosely in American political discourse. ..
… I think he’s overwrought here. He may be absolutely correct about Trump’s character and his mere instrumental use of the Republican Party, but I doubt that the American people will long support a crazy populist leader. In a future post, I may talk about the prospects of Trump being impeached if he tries to govern anything like Kagan imagines. (Also, why Hillary will be impeached if she contrives to win.)
But what if Trump turned out not to be a crazy populist leader? That’s the case that Frank Buckley of Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University makes in The American Spectator …
The main point is: the Kagan-Buckley contrast shows how Trump is confusing everyone and everything in a way we’ve simply never seen before in American politics. Buckle up.
__________________________________
This is one of those times when it would be fun to be a Hollywood producer or a TV programmer. The prequel to “Idiocracy” should be released in September. The sequel would come out after the election. Election Day would feature a 24 hour marathon of the original movie.
Wandering Views 
This is a fine article by a teacher about what the U.S. once was and what it has become. You have to be a certain age to know what has been lost.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/05/my_country_was_of_thee.html
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It has truly been stunning to watch the changes in our country just in the past 20 or so years. Sheesh, the last 10 years. The way had been prepared, but the abruptness of the change was head spinning.
We live in a land where people call evil good and good evil. It’s truly like living in an alternative universe, although it’s probably more the norm for Christians through the centuries than not. We’ve been lulled into complacency in the U.S., a land that wasn’t truly “Christian” per se, but one that at least benignly accepted Judeo-Christian morality as being “good” and the ideal. It was in place, at least, as the generally accepted plumb line.
The wake-up alarm now ringing so loudly is jarring indeed. I hate mornings.
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I keep imagining Eugene McCarthy when Bernie comes on TV anymore, surrounded by his youth brigade.
And Hubert Humphrey when Clinton tries, over and over, to keep everyone in line — right behind her.
We could be in for a wild convention, reminiscent of 1968.
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Noonan on the Dems:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-sanders-maybe-thats-the-ticket-1463700912
______________________
… Here’s what I suspect is coming whatever happens this year. Just as a portion of Republicans—nobody knows how big—will break from the GOP over Donald Trump, some percentage of Democrats, especially among the affluent will, in the next cycle, start to peel off from their party over its lurch leftward.
They will not be at home in a party of smiley-face socialism that threatens to become actual socialism. They will not want the American economy destroyed. They will not be comfortable in a party that supports the most extreme political correctness; they do not want their 10-year-old daughters using transgendered bathrooms with men. They will find themselves increasingly opposed to the political correctness that has swept the universities. They will have increasing qualms about spending $60,000 a year to have their bright, kind children turned into leftist robots.
So they will start to split off from the Democrats, and they will find the Republicans who split off in 2016, and together, in 2020 or so, they will attempt to create their own party. It will be pro-growth, moderate on social issues, more or less neoconservative in its foreign policy. It will be smallish but well-heeled. It will try to hold together and grow.
That is my prophecy. Everything is in play.
… (and on VP picks for both parties):
California votes June 7. A journalist this week speculated in conversation that if Mrs. Clinton underperforms or even loses there, it could be a gift. It will make her desperate. Presuming she goes on to win the nomination, her desperation might prompt her to make Bernie Sanders her vice presidential nominee.
Why not? It would hold the party together for this cycle. It would help keep Sanders voters, who often threaten to go elsewhere if Mrs. Clinton is the nominee, in the tent. It would also unsettle Trumpworld. They see Bernie supporters as potential Trump supporters in the general election, and Mr. Sanders as having an appeal that overlaps with their own. They see his outsider mystique and his appeal to the young. …
… Big ships need ballast to keep the ship upright, to keep it from tipping over when a high wave comes. Ballast is by its nature uninteresting. Mr. Trump needs ballast. He would benefit from a solid, uninteresting running mate.
Uninteresting would come as such a relief this year. It would be like the old days, when people were boring.
________________________________
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/05/the-endless-enigma-of-donald-trump.php
______________________
Trump is likely to be puzzling us long after he finishes his second term in the White House (heh). Is he a would-be fascist, a mere authoritarian, a savvy “deal-maker,” or just an imperious narcissist? Or something else? ..
Robert Kagan’s Washington Post article (makes) the case that Trump is essentially a fascist. Fascism is a word that is hard to define with agreeable precision, and gets thrown around all too loosely in American political discourse. ..
… I think he’s overwrought here. He may be absolutely correct about Trump’s character and his mere instrumental use of the Republican Party, but I doubt that the American people will long support a crazy populist leader. In a future post, I may talk about the prospects of Trump being impeached if he tries to govern anything like Kagan imagines. (Also, why Hillary will be impeached if she contrives to win.)
But what if Trump turned out not to be a crazy populist leader? That’s the case that Frank Buckley of Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University makes in The American Spectator …
The main point is: the Kagan-Buckley contrast shows how Trump is confusing everyone and everything in a way we’ve simply never seen before in American politics. Buckle up.
__________________________________
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Was this news printed in your newspaper?
http://www.cato.org/blog/judge-sanctions-obama-lawyers-ethical-violations-wishes-he-could-disbar-them
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This is one of those times when it would be fun to be a Hollywood producer or a TV programmer. The prequel to “Idiocracy” should be released in September. The sequel would come out after the election. Election Day would feature a 24 hour marathon of the original movie.
LikeLike