What Do We Do Now?

As we approach the final stretch run toward the Democratic and Republican nominations, there is one thing self-evident. We are about to nominate on the Democratic side one of America’s most incompetent politicians who should be wearing prison orange due to her lifetime of corruption and on the Republican side, one of the most incompetent nominees who has taken advantage of a multiple political field but who has, since the primary began, seen his political campaign descend into a chaotic mess as he gets closer to the nomination.

The worst aspect of a Hillary nomination is that Bernie Sanders is the most illiterate man on foreign affairs and economics than any presidential candidate who ever ran but since he is a socialist, he has an excuse. It is not comforting to know that the alternative to Hillary is a know-nothing demagogue.

Hillary Clinton plays the feminist champion while she advances the old fashion way: on the back of her husband, who proved to be one of the more chauvinistic politicians who has used women throughout his life, something that Hillary has enabled. Much of Hillary's career in the private sector had little to do with her Ivy League law degree but because of who she was married to. Clinton did manage to use her marriage to obtain a Senate seat and Secretary of State, where she proved to be more dangerous than mere incompetent and her reign at the service of Obama proved to be catastrophic. Can anyone say that we are safer today than when she took the oath of office as Secretary of State? Between the abuse of her emails which could have compromised national security or the influence peddling that enriched her family through their foundation, a prosecuting District Attorney would have a smorgasbord of offenses to indict Hillary and even her husband if he or she simply went to a Grand Jury. Incompetence and being corrupt is hardly a qualification to be president.

Then there is Bernie Sanders. This is a man who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and managed to write a political commentary on women fantasizing about gang rape and forwarded the scientific theory that women suffer ovarian cancer because of a lack of orgasms. Just brilliance is rarely rewarded with being treated seriously as a candidate for the Presidency much less allowed in Congress, but we are living in 2016 where seriousness has given way to reality show mentality where the outrageous is celebrated and competency and loyalty to important causes are viewed as vices.

As for Sanders, his big issue is to break up Wall Street and big banks but when asked by the New York Daily News- who I suspect would love to endorse him- how he plans to obtain his goal, he failed to name a law or provision that would allow him to obtain his goal. As National Review's Kevin Williamson observed, “I’d bet a fair sum of money that the man who proposes to revamp the rules under which American finance is conducted could not explain what a derivative is or how a credit-default swap works.” This is a man who thinks that man-made climate change is the number one foreign policy issue we have, never mind the rise of ISIS, Iran's hegemony in the Middle East, or Russia and China becoming serious rivals. (Many of the following problems the courtesy of former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.)

Then there is Donald Trump, a liberal Republican with a few conservative ideas, who has shown that you can fool enough of the American people to get close to the nomination. Since the South Carolina primary, we have found out that Trump is a 9/11 Truther to go with being a birther. He has changed his position on key provisions of his immigration plans three times in a week between the Detroit debate and Houston Debate, went from saying let's punish women for having abortions to keeping the law as is presently, and even hinted that his position on trade is negotiable. Politicians may change their positions but Trump seems to change positions in the course of a debate, leaving one to ask, so who is the real Trump?

The problem for the GOP is that if they deny Trump the nomination, he may walk and attempt to run as a third Party or at least tell his supporters to stay home. The reverse is that Trump is running behind Hillary Clinton by double digits and is the only Republican who is not only consistently losing to Hillary, but he is the only one who consistently loses to independents. I warned in a previous article, “Trump is hijacking the Republican Party and in the process is doing what the left has been wanting to do: isolate the conservative and libertarian movement to the sideline…Trump is not a man of strongly held beliefs other than with Trump running government, great things will happen and it will be huge! So the hope for conservatives is that Trump will do some things right since they know Hillary won’t but that for many conservatives, this is a slim reed to allow Trump the nomination.”

The good news is that the GOP does have options beginning with Ted Cruz, who is one of more knowledgeable politicians and John Kasich, who I find insufferable but who has shown to be a competent politician throughout his career. So if Trump doesn’t have 1237 when he shows up in Cleveland, they don’t have to nominate him, and while the potential of an ugly split increases if this happens, having Cruz or Kasich on the top of the ticket will aid the Senate and congressional candidates in contrast to the Trump effect. This campaign has seen so many twists and turns to predict what will happen other than expect the unexpected. One unexpected is that we may have two contested conventions.