The Best and the Brightest?
With Super Tuesday behind us, I have to wonder. Is this the best we have to offer ourselves? Let's assume that Clinton and Trump are going to be our two major choices for president. My question is: how did it come down to these two? Are they the best? Certainly not.
One need only have listened to the news a few years back to have heard enough about both of these candidates to know two things.
1. You can't trust them except for the fact that...
2. They will do anything to succeed.
Clinton has the liberal label and Trump courts the evangelical Christians. I am not sure how to get a handle on either of those two facts. Especially the Trump/evangelical connection. How does a man who has difficulty correctly citing the Bible - in particular the letters of Paul in the New Testament (remember the "two Corinthians" statement?) - become the champion, defender, and candidate for the religious right? I mean, when the son of Jerry Falwell (remember the Moral Majority?) can endorse Trump...well, perhaps the end is nigh.
What it appears is that evangelicals have succumbed to Trump's statements at Liberty University where, addressing a group of professed evangelical Christians, he said, "You don't want to get even, do you? Yeah, I think you do." They want revenge and not in defense of the faith so much as it is an upholding of their convictions that stem from their interpretation of the faith...more or less.
And Clinton as liberal? Before I get to that, it seems to me that it was 'decided' that Clinton was the candidate for the Democrats a long, long time ago. Biden? Say it ain't so Joe!
Clinton has shifted further left during the campaign. Further than President Bill Clinton ever did. And perhaps that's the issue. To be a liberal seems to mean being an extreme liberal. The two parties seem to have been taken over by the extremes. Not just liberal but far-left liberal. Not just conservative but far-right conservative.
That might explain how Trump has managed to get the support of both Louis Farrakhan and the KKK. That takes talent - or a whole lot of angry, angry rhetoric.
So we have polarized and polarizing candidates. And middle of the road, middle class moderates? The ground seems to be opening up beneath them as they seem to have to decide which is the lesser of the two evils offered. So is this the best we have to offer ourselves? Perhaps the idea is this: you get out what you put in. Have we been putting in garbage?
One need only have listened to the news a few years back to have heard enough about both of these candidates to know two things.
1. You can't trust them except for the fact that...
2. They will do anything to succeed.
Clinton has the liberal label and Trump courts the evangelical Christians. I am not sure how to get a handle on either of those two facts. Especially the Trump/evangelical connection. How does a man who has difficulty correctly citing the Bible - in particular the letters of Paul in the New Testament (remember the "two Corinthians" statement?) - become the champion, defender, and candidate for the religious right? I mean, when the son of Jerry Falwell (remember the Moral Majority?) can endorse Trump...well, perhaps the end is nigh.
What it appears is that evangelicals have succumbed to Trump's statements at Liberty University where, addressing a group of professed evangelical Christians, he said, "You don't want to get even, do you? Yeah, I think you do." They want revenge and not in defense of the faith so much as it is an upholding of their convictions that stem from their interpretation of the faith...more or less.
And Clinton as liberal? Before I get to that, it seems to me that it was 'decided' that Clinton was the candidate for the Democrats a long, long time ago. Biden? Say it ain't so Joe!
Clinton has shifted further left during the campaign. Further than President Bill Clinton ever did. And perhaps that's the issue. To be a liberal seems to mean being an extreme liberal. The two parties seem to have been taken over by the extremes. Not just liberal but far-left liberal. Not just conservative but far-right conservative.
That might explain how Trump has managed to get the support of both Louis Farrakhan and the KKK. That takes talent - or a whole lot of angry, angry rhetoric.
So we have polarized and polarizing candidates. And middle of the road, middle class moderates? The ground seems to be opening up beneath them as they seem to have to decide which is the lesser of the two evils offered. So is this the best we have to offer ourselves? Perhaps the idea is this: you get out what you put in. Have we been putting in garbage?
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