Well, now we have a fine mess, don’t we? It’s starting to look to me as though the Democrats are straightening out. We still have to be on guard and be sure to vote, but it looks as though we might avoid a Bernie Sanders disaster. I am convinced, beyond any reasonable doubt, that a Sanders nomination would result in a landslide defeat for the Democrats. Unless the Republican nominee was Cruz, but that doesn’t seem likely. He is even more disliked by his colleagues than Sanders is. But the mess I was referring to is that the likely Republican nominee is Donald Trump.

I have never seen anything like this before. The far-ahead front-runner of one of our two major parties is a professional blowhard, who openly advocates extreme nativism and anti-Mexican and anti-Muslim ethnic and religious prejudice. We have had entertainers in high office before. Ronald Reagan was an actor, and a very good one. He wasn’t a blowhard, though, and he kept his message positive. The Republican poo-bahs are beside themselves with worry. I am laughing myself silly. The chickens truly have come home to roost. Now, Donald Trump is aiming his birther gun at Cruz. Hahaha. In your face, those of you who were so happy to see Trump yuk it up with his Obama birther nonsense. A gun can be aimed in any direction. Be wary of somebody who seems to be quick on the trigger. He could turn around and aim it at you.

The main point I am trying to make, though, is that the Republicans’ Donald Trump problem was entirely self-inflicted. Starting with Richard Nixon’s southern strategy, the Republicans have appealed to the majority white voters’ worst instincts. All their dog-whistle racism and nativism chickens have come home to roost. The part that I like, though, is that aside from Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-“other” philosophy, he is NOT A CONSERVATIVE! Donald has given the Republican establishment a well-deserved figurative punch in the mouth. Turns out that their base isn’t so much in favor of gutting the safety nets and social programs. The Right’s big-money men and media bosses have been playing a game for quite a while now. They have been, up to now, successfully convincing people to vote against their own interests based on social issues. It is absurd, on the face of it, somebody on government assistance voting for a party that wants to severely curtail your assistance. They are not your friend, but you vote for them anyway. Why? Because they have conflated social issues with fiscal policy, convincing people that the beneficiaries of government social spending are minorities, drug addicts, illegal immigrants, etc. Scum of the earth, so to speak, in their view. So when a party is dog-whistling you about welfare queens, food-stamp moochers, and dangerous black criminals, well, my heavens, you will vote for that party. They are saving the American Way, never mind that they are stealing money from you and giving it to the rich. Reverse Robin Hooding you. The tax money is there. The only question is, who benefits from it. The Republican answer has always been the rich. They use all kinds of excuses, like if you tax the rich, they won’t hire people and they won’t expand their business. Bull. The Great Recession has shown that what happens when the wealthy corporations have excess funds, they just park it offshore. No benefit to anybody but them.

I believe that the candidates for president in November are going to wind up as Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump. May the best person win!

I would like to address the issue of gender in national politics. Today is the Nevada caucus for the Democrats, and the South Carolina primary for Republicans. The Republicans don’t have a woman in the race anymore, since Carly Fiorina dropped out. I abhor her politics and I thought she made up her own facts. Regardless, she was unable to walk the tightrope that women have to walk in order to be elected to high office. I believe that sunk her more than anything else. In my opinion, none of the Republican candidates have much regard for the truth. She was no different, but she was trying to run as a female, and she was seen as too aggressive. Hello, there is an orange gentleman running who is the personification of aggression. Be honest. If Donald was female, not only would he not be in contention, he would be committed to Bellevue.

Now, I will discuss the Democratic primary battle between Bernard Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Sanders is an avowed Socialist. Democratic socialist, but it doesn’t matter. If he gets nominated, you can be sure that none of the attack ads against him will mention the democratic part. He will be pictured with a hammer and sickle. The Republicans will let everyone know that he went on a honeymoon with his first wife in the U.S.S.R. and that he took a trip to Nicaragua in support of Socialist President Daniel Ortega. Let me just say, with considerable understatement, that Sanders’ candidacy is a target-rich environment. I could write an attack ad against him that would blow your hair back and I don’t do it for a living. They do. But regardless, Sanders is gaining on Clinton, and the Nevada caucus is a toss-up, where once it was considered a shoo-in for Hillary.

This whole situation is giving me a strong sense of deja vu. I saw this movie before. A strong, competent woman started out as the favorite, was primaried by an idealistic man with a plan that belonged on a Fantasy Island episode, and she was slowly weakened and eventually lost. The man, President Obama, did the best he could, but he had a formidable adversary. The entire Republican party united against his every move, blocking, delaying, challenging, suing, even denying him the ability to pass programs that were Republican creations, I. e. Obamacare, nee Romneycare. The same damn plan, different spokesman.

Now we have our white-haired knight, Sir Bernard Sanders, setting forth to do battle against the forces of evil. Regardless of the fact that Obama started out the same way and had very limited success. And he wasn’t a Socialist. I really believe that his whole campaign should be a TV show, maybe called “Fantasy Candidate”. Can you imagine, just for a minute, if Sanders had a different gender but the same characteristics? Unkempt hair, old-man suits, humorless disposition, shouting about the same, exact thing over and over. Name a problem. It will be answered the same: a rigged economy, Wall Street, unequal distribution of wealth. He know nothing of foreign policy and cares nothing about foreign policy. Just like Donald, not only would Bernie as a woman not be on the national stage, he would be committed to Bellevue.

I really find it offensive that so many young women (and men) who are Sanders fans are parroting the same Republican lines about Hillary. She has been in the public eye a long time and has made many enemies on the Right. It seems like a friend of mine said, that these women are internalizing their supposed inferiority. They have been hearing it so long that they believe it themselves. They seem to think that they couldn’t possibly trust a woman to be a good President. That’s a man’s job. Sexism run amok in both men and women. I think that, even if Bernie wasn’t running, there would be some other man doing the same Mexican hat dance on her. A little known, coming up from behind, building up support and eventually surpassing her. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen this time. Hillary’s personal situation is the lesser problem. The real problem will be that, if Sanders does win the nomination, he will go down in flames in a landslide. A lot of young folks weren’t around in 1972 when George McGovern lost to Richard M. Nixon in a landslide. I was. Deja vu all over again, again.

Okay. It is the day after the NH primary, and my candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost in a landslide to Bernie Sanders. There are several reasons for that. The left is riled up as much as the right, with our Bernie Sanders and the right’s Donald Trump.

First, let me say that I don’t hate Trump. The only thing I can’t quite understand and forgive is his “birther” attacks on President Obama. Donald wasn’t even running for anything at that time, and I found his behavior to be similar to an internet troll who busts up a newsgroup with obscenities and unfounded accusations. Reprehensible. Although, it is possible that even then he had an eye on the 2016 race and was trying to be noticed. Only he knows that. Most of what he has been vilified for since he has been running is mostly just attention-getting strategy. If he hadn’t started off accusing Mexicans of being rapists, would he even have been a footnote in the race? I doubt it. He has a Midas touch with promotional skills. And I hate to break it to you conservatives, but outside of his nationalism, he really isn’t all that conservative.

And then you have Comrade Sanders :-). I mean Bernie Sanders. Or rather Bernard Sanders, self-declared Democratic Socialist from Vermont. Or from Brooklyn, originally. He has benefited enormously from this throw-out-the-bums sentiment in the country. Especially among the under-40 crowd. He is unelectable. Period. See: http://theweek.com/articles/599975/bernie-sanders-not-president. All he is capable of doing is, along with his followers, dragging down Hillary with Republican-style attacks so that by the time the general election comes, she has already been so beaten up by “her side” that she will have a hard time being elected. It’s a win-win for the Republicans. If Sanders wins the nomination, they will make matzo balls out of him. He is toast right out of the gate. If Hillary wins, see my previous comment. The Republicans are happy now, believe me, since they are not the only ones with a divided electorate. And now that we have pretty much made racism a national no-no, isn’t it about time we did the same with sexism? All these comments about Hillary and her pantsuits turn my stomach. How about Bernie and his old-man hair and suits? Listen to the crickets. See: http://www.thenation.com/article/why-im-supporting-hillary-clinton-with-joy-and-without-apologies/.

New Hampshire and Iowa are outliers. Bernie’s win was predictable, as was Donald’s. Donald may go on to the nomination, but Bernie most certainly will not. He is not running for President of New England or President of the Coasts. Iowa and New Hampshire are overwhelmingly white and Iowa, at least, has a large amount of socialists. See: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/17/1471163/-Red-dawn-More-Iowa-Democratic-caucus-goers-identify-as-socialist-than-capitalist

I believe that Hillary Clinton will be our next President. I fervently support her, and I will become active in her campaign. She is the only person currently running who deserves the title of President of the United States.