Thursday, March 17, 2016

US PRIMARIES: "WE HAVE SEEN BETTER DAYS" (As You Like It, II.7.121.)

The Super Tuesday primaries were "full of sound and fury" (Macbeth, V, 5.23).
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won the numbers, if not the hearts and minds.
A lot is being said about both contenders.  Trump is hard to swallow even for his "fellow" Republicans.  Clinton's "Mary Stuart" act comes over as totally phony in the eyes of millennial Democrats.

Both are the victims of their own script.  Trump is responsible for a tone and a tenure not heard or seen since the Goldwater days. The difference being that, contrary to the former, the latter probably hardly believes in his promises.  Once elected, the wall might become an allegory, the trade wars a skirmish, the ostracism not more than a bureaucratic measure.  Unfortunately, he is giving  free-reign to the many who feel left out, ignored or snubbed in an economy which seems stalled in the dry-dock. This "Weimar tide" will not lead to a Big Brother, authoritarian-type of presidency but it will be an uphill battle to respond to the falsely created expectations if Trump were elected.

Clinton still lives under the sword of Damocles of judiciary indictment.  Her wins are certain but they can hardly hide the generational or other divides. Her rival, while standing for a largely discounted socialist, interventionist regulatory agenda, has a better standing and respect with many (also Republicans). Clinton is smart, informed, but is also a master of deflecting the undesirable darker corners of her bio.  The two other Republican candidates look for the moment equally unelectable.  Cruz because, rightly or wrongly, he is disliked by most. Kasich because he sounds too good to be true.

Both conventions will have balloons and drama. None might be worthy of respect.
The voters may well overdose on "simplifications" and head for the delete button instead!
 

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