Politics as Usual?

Just a few thoughts: politics...

There is a distinctly different flavor to the political pie of today.
I remember when Reagan was elected President way back when --- I thought, 'Oh, now we are electing actors for President?!' Turns out, he may have been one of the best in modern history.

So many candidates of the recent past have compared themselves to JFK..... wishful thinking.

But the campaigns now are just plain nasty. Trump is nasty. He seems to fit all the criteria for a narcissistic diagnosis, but then so many politicians do. Nobody in Washington DC gets along with Cruz, and Marco Rubio seems to think he can administer Trump's own medicine to him -- and it just isn't working.
Donald Trump is Donald Trump. Marco Rubio is not. And he shouldn't try to administer foul jokes - it says more about him than it says about his opponent. Disappointing.

The two decent candidates rate in the single digits in all the polls. Does that prove dirty politics is politics as usual? No such thing as a clean campaign being effective? Too bad.

Maybe.

Mr. Trump has many descriptions that could accurately label him. Do we want labels? Well, maybe we need them. The party system creates a natural competition, but it has gone way too far. So far, that a single word, either Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative elicits immediate hate and disapproval without further consideration. Lazy judgment.

I think Trump may be thought of as the antidote to the apologies, the concessions, the deals, use of executive order, and a loose interpretation of the Constitution that characterize the current administration. And he may do the same thing, only instead of having class like Mr. Obama, he will resemble a bulldozer. He makes a lot of noise. And the sound of his engine is not of the Washington machine, which may be the draw for him. But then neither Carson nor Kasich are of the Washington ilk... so that theory may be null and void.

I remember when Democrats chided the Republicans for their criticism of Bill Clinton. They said what a man does in his private life is none of our business. They quoted Europeans who tsk tsk the silly American and their Puritanical values, saying they should wake up, grow up. But the man who would would dishonor his own personal vows, who would lie, who would betray his spouse employs values that generate past his immediate family. The Clintons are known as liars. And that has proved to be not so advantageous to the country.