Each day brings about yet another surprise in the continuing brouhaha, formally known as the 2016 presidential election. The latest is ex-GOP House Speaker John Boehner publicly comparing Sen. Ted Cruz to Satan himself, "Lucifer in the flesh." The response of many Republicans is that this is an insult to Satan.
In an ordinary election cycle, if there is such a thing, the Sanders phenom would be the big story. Here we have a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" U.S. senator with frizzy hair, previously all but unknown outside of the state where they wear funny shoes, becoming a rock star to young folks and taking on the tough, accomplished, whip-smart, most famous woman in the world.
The senator is not a Johnny-come-lately to the issues he brings to the table. But until now, the out-of-touch mainstream media nitwits, a.k.a. "pundits," have ignored the senator and his important issues. We have come to expect such ignorance of the media aristocracy.
The rock-star septuagenarian won't get the Democratic nomination, but he has made Mrs. Clinton a better, tougher, more formidable candidate. The nation owes Sanders a debt of thanks for raising the profile of important issues.
Even the Sanders phenom has been eclipsed by the continuing GOP brouhaha, making the Democratic battle look like a love fest.
One suspects that Mr. Trump himself could not have anticipated his early successes. With his media savvy, he quickly attracted attention and wrapped the ratings-conscious media aristocracy around his little finger, gaining gratuitous media time that his competitors would have killed for. But tapping the same economic anxiety and discontent recognized by Sanders was key to his success.
Sen. Rand Paul was originally dubbed the outsider who didn't walk in lockstep to standard Republican dogma. But he never was a factor in the race. Trump soon eliminated the once favored Gov. Scott Walker, the heir-apparent Jeb Bush, and all the rest of them except Cruz and the bewildered Gov. John Kasich.
So Sanders and Trump shock the media stars, forcing upon them some much-needed humility, the classic Sgt. Schultz response, "I know nothing."
But that didn't stop their erroneous predictions, such as "Wisconsin is the turning point." Wrong again. Trump didn't do well in Minnesota, the Midwestern state known for "Minnesota nice." Both Iowa and Wisconsin are Midwestern states with their own versions of "Minnesota nice." Trump didn't do well here either.
In New York and Mid-Atlantic states where brash language is accepted, even celebrated, Trump enjoyed resurgence, helped by the intemperate insults of New York values by Cruz. And that is not "Evangelical country" that is friendly to Cruz.
So now the resilient Trump, the outsider who was supposed to make a splash for the GOP before dutifully bowing out, is the presumptive nominee and Republican standard bearer. The GOP "establishment," a loose coalition of Republican office-holders, national GOP officials, and wealthy donors, not only expressed panic but, at least temporarily, engaged in open warfare with their own presumptive nominee for the presidency.
The anomalies of this race abound. The open warfare between the GOP establishment and the party's presumptive nominee is unprecedented. So we have a Republican nominee who is not considered a "real Republican." And he is winning under a system of insider party rules that he denigrates as "unfair" and "corrupt." So the outsider has beaten the insiders at the insiders' rules. But as the insiders have accused the outsider of disruption, the outsider claims that he will bring more outsiders to the inside, and unite the insiders and the outsiders.
But heck, that's nothing. In Cruz, we had an insider who claimed to be an outsider and used his insider's knowledge to recruit delegates who would be released from supporting Trump in the unlikely event of a contested convention that goes beyond the first vote.
And Cruz, the insider professing to be an outsider, is despised by many of his fellow insiders. Maybe that really makes him an outsider. Early on, insider Sen. Lindsey Graham compared voting for Trump and Cruz as a choice between death by gunshot and by poison. Insider Graham, presumably with deep reflection, chose poison, affirming support of Cruz, the insider posing as an outsider.
The anomalies continue. As Trump rolls on toward nomination, Cruz broke with precedent and announced his running mate prior to attaining his unlikely nomination. So the lovable Ms. Carly Fiorina becomes a vice presidential candidate, running with a candidate who will not be the candidate.
Fiorina's selection as Cruz' VP running mate cruelly crushes any delusions our worthy Walker had of being rewarded by the candidate he endorsed during the Wisconsin primary. The phantom "cheesehead revolution" dreamed up by Walker and the hapless GOP Chairman Reince Priebus fizzled. The third member of this dream, Paul Ryan, was astute enough never to acknowledge it. Our senior senator, Ronald Johnson, was appropriately ignored as, come November, he will devolve into well-deserved obscurity.
And Kasich? He's conservative enough to satisfy any Republican except the most extreme hard-nose. But not this year. Here we have an insider claiming to be an outsider who can work with insiders. We can't blame the baffled insider for wanting it both ways. But it didn't work any better than the half-baked, hare-brained exercise in idiocy between Kasich and Cruz to "divide up the territory" in a desperate attempt to stop Trump.
It was a Hobson's choice for the GOP; go with the "fake Republican," or lose with Cruz, the real Republican.
Nevertheless, I urge my Republican friends - I do have some - not to despair. Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line.
If that's not enough, Democrats consistently find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Unless Sanders' supporters get away from their smartphones long enough to vote for Hillary, it could happen again.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
In an ordinary election cycle, if there is such a thing, the Sanders phenom would be the big story. Here we have a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" U.S. senator with frizzy hair, previously all but unknown outside of the state where they wear funny shoes, becoming a rock star to young folks and taking on the tough, accomplished, whip-smart, most famous woman in the world.
The senator is not a Johnny-come-lately to the issues he brings to the table. But until now, the out-of-touch mainstream media nitwits, a.k.a. "pundits," have ignored the senator and his important issues. We have come to expect such ignorance of the media aristocracy.
The rock-star septuagenarian won't get the Democratic nomination, but he has made Mrs. Clinton a better, tougher, more formidable candidate. The nation owes Sanders a debt of thanks for raising the profile of important issues.
Even the Sanders phenom has been eclipsed by the continuing GOP brouhaha, making the Democratic battle look like a love fest.
One suspects that Mr. Trump himself could not have anticipated his early successes. With his media savvy, he quickly attracted attention and wrapped the ratings-conscious media aristocracy around his little finger, gaining gratuitous media time that his competitors would have killed for. But tapping the same economic anxiety and discontent recognized by Sanders was key to his success.
Sen. Rand Paul was originally dubbed the outsider who didn't walk in lockstep to standard Republican dogma. But he never was a factor in the race. Trump soon eliminated the once favored Gov. Scott Walker, the heir-apparent Jeb Bush, and all the rest of them except Cruz and the bewildered Gov. John Kasich.
So Sanders and Trump shock the media stars, forcing upon them some much-needed humility, the classic Sgt. Schultz response, "I know nothing."
But that didn't stop their erroneous predictions, such as "Wisconsin is the turning point." Wrong again. Trump didn't do well in Minnesota, the Midwestern state known for "Minnesota nice." Both Iowa and Wisconsin are Midwestern states with their own versions of "Minnesota nice." Trump didn't do well here either.
In New York and Mid-Atlantic states where brash language is accepted, even celebrated, Trump enjoyed resurgence, helped by the intemperate insults of New York values by Cruz. And that is not "Evangelical country" that is friendly to Cruz.
So now the resilient Trump, the outsider who was supposed to make a splash for the GOP before dutifully bowing out, is the presumptive nominee and Republican standard bearer. The GOP "establishment," a loose coalition of Republican office-holders, national GOP officials, and wealthy donors, not only expressed panic but, at least temporarily, engaged in open warfare with their own presumptive nominee for the presidency.
The anomalies of this race abound. The open warfare between the GOP establishment and the party's presumptive nominee is unprecedented. So we have a Republican nominee who is not considered a "real Republican." And he is winning under a system of insider party rules that he denigrates as "unfair" and "corrupt." So the outsider has beaten the insiders at the insiders' rules. But as the insiders have accused the outsider of disruption, the outsider claims that he will bring more outsiders to the inside, and unite the insiders and the outsiders.
But heck, that's nothing. In Cruz, we had an insider who claimed to be an outsider and used his insider's knowledge to recruit delegates who would be released from supporting Trump in the unlikely event of a contested convention that goes beyond the first vote.
And Cruz, the insider professing to be an outsider, is despised by many of his fellow insiders. Maybe that really makes him an outsider. Early on, insider Sen. Lindsey Graham compared voting for Trump and Cruz as a choice between death by gunshot and by poison. Insider Graham, presumably with deep reflection, chose poison, affirming support of Cruz, the insider posing as an outsider.
The anomalies continue. As Trump rolls on toward nomination, Cruz broke with precedent and announced his running mate prior to attaining his unlikely nomination. So the lovable Ms. Carly Fiorina becomes a vice presidential candidate, running with a candidate who will not be the candidate.
Fiorina's selection as Cruz' VP running mate cruelly crushes any delusions our worthy Walker had of being rewarded by the candidate he endorsed during the Wisconsin primary. The phantom "cheesehead revolution" dreamed up by Walker and the hapless GOP Chairman Reince Priebus fizzled. The third member of this dream, Paul Ryan, was astute enough never to acknowledge it. Our senior senator, Ronald Johnson, was appropriately ignored as, come November, he will devolve into well-deserved obscurity.
And Kasich? He's conservative enough to satisfy any Republican except the most extreme hard-nose. But not this year. Here we have an insider claiming to be an outsider who can work with insiders. We can't blame the baffled insider for wanting it both ways. But it didn't work any better than the half-baked, hare-brained exercise in idiocy between Kasich and Cruz to "divide up the territory" in a desperate attempt to stop Trump.
It was a Hobson's choice for the GOP; go with the "fake Republican," or lose with Cruz, the real Republican.
Nevertheless, I urge my Republican friends - I do have some - not to despair. Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line.
If that's not enough, Democrats consistently find ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Unless Sanders' supporters get away from their smartphones long enough to vote for Hillary, it could happen again.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
