The Zeitgeist

It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To.

(Note: This appeared originally on The Huffington Post on the eve of the Republican National Convention which started on July 18, 2016)

In what very likely may look like a derivation of the Miss Universe Pageant (a former Trump Production) the Republican Party convenes from July 18-21^st in Cleveland, home of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. The upcoming event portends the antithesis of dull and formal conventions past. Look (metaphorically) for a fusion of a glam rock/heavy metal concert with dollops of The Apprentice, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, WWE and Baywatch covered with a light dusting of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, or the will of Trump wherein the GOP “Establishment” will be formally “fired.”

In what can be termed “The Great Leap Backward,” Donald Trump will be leading the GOP into a pre-Eisenhower policy mélange of isolationism, tariffs and economic protectionism (rejection of international free trade) mixed with a noxious whiff of nativism which manifests itself in draconian restrictions on travel and immigration, particularly for ethnic groups that are non-white and non-Christian. It’s no small wonder then that neither Bush the Elder or Bush the Younger will be in attendance. Neither will the “losers” John McCain and Mitt Romney. Trump just doesn’t throw their kind of a party.

In 1963 Leslie Gore had a number one hit with “It’s My Party (and I’ll cry if I want to)” The great Quincy Jones produced it. In this famous single, Gore asserts that “you would cry too if it happened to you,” especially because “Judy’s smile is so mean.” There’s a lot of weeping and bawling in both mainstream and even Tea Party Republican circles because Trump and Trumpism are so antithetical to GOP ideology, ethos and even style that many of us feel dumped after a lifetime of going steady and this is a cause of great vexation, consternation and lamentation – so much so that I’ll probably not watch much of the convention and may not even vote for a presidential candidate in November for the first time in my adult life.

The Party of Lincoln and Reagan arrives at Cleveland with a presidential nominee that most Republicans don’t want and in fact that a solid plurality loathe. Trump got the nod from an invasion of the party snatchers – those open primary voters who crashed the Republican Party by either legitimately crossing party lines, becoming a Republican at the polling station or were allowed to vote Republican even as Independents. A lot of key states permitted this. Trump touts all the millions he brought into the Party – what he really did was bring them in to vote for Trump. The ridiculously fractured field of 17 wannabees, enabled by a debate practically every week allowed Trump to trump the professional politicians with a brew of outrageousness and insults that most media enabled in a shameless pandering for ratings.

Unlike the Democrats who have a “Super Delegate” mechanism to keep the party from getting too wild and out of hand (and which gives some say to party leaders and activists), the Republicans have no “great wall” to fend off the invading wildlings and figurative Mongol hordes. The Democratic Party got tired of nominating implausible candidates and taking a drubbing on election day so they made it virtually impossible for a total outsider to snatch their nomination unless that person swept every primary, much to Bernie Sanders’ dismay.

Both parties need to revise their primary and party membership criteria. It’s not enough to just say you’re a Democrat or Republican and then be able to select the nominee for the highest office in the land and leader of the free world on a whim in whatever party even if you don’t belong to one.

First, the GOP needs to abolish open primaries – they’re a Trojan horse that will always portend danger to viable mainstream candidates because populists like Trump can bring in the wackadoo crowd or Democratic activists can torpedo a candidacy by driving a lot of their members to the polls to vote Republican as spoilers. This can also happen to Democrats too in reverse in an open primary. To vote in a party primary one should be a member of that party for at least 45 days prior and more significantly, there should be a membership fee so that there is some level of serious commitment to the party and skin in the game. I recommend a charge of $10 to join a party with the proceeds being split down the middle between the state and national party organizations. That way the parties pick-up some important revenue (and not from special interests) and voters can’t drop in on a whim. This would seriously limit “spam voters” and “malware candidacies.”

Next, the Republicans have to catch their tongues – no weekly debates for a year with 17 people. There should be a total of six debates, one per month prior to the California primary in June and to participate in the debates a candidate should be polling at least 15 percent, not one percent.

But this is all looking to the future. Meanwhile I, along with millions of other Republicans will absolutely be crying over all the spilled milk and wasted opportunities that a Trump nomination brings and the very real dangers looming for the country if he wins because of his immaturity, irrationality, bellicosity, belligerence and braggadocio.

The Zeitgeist

Strange Bedfellows: This Florida Republican Agrees with Bernie and Hillary. Trump Must be Stopped So America and the GOP Can Be Saved.

Note: This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post and InauguralClock.com on March 14, 2016, the day prior to the Florida Primary.

It’s an odd day indeed when a lifelong Republican finds himself in agreement with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It’s the very definition of “politics makes strange bedfellows.”

Over the weekend Hillary said “Donald Trump is not who we are” and Bernie Sanders asserted that “Donald Trump is a pathological liar.” I wholeheartedly agree with both statements.

Donald Trump has conjured a witches brew of ignorance, belligerence, insults, racism, misogyny and xenophobic jingoism along with quite a (forgive the pun) liberal sprinkling of bald-faced mendacity that is so outrageous that it boggles the mind and the senses.

The Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbles was famous for saying that “the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.” In the case of Donald Trump, he lies almost all of the time. (when he’s not busy flip-flopping his positions on the issues) Big lies, little lies, sweet lies, mean lies, white lies.

Zombie voters have crept out of their usual stupefied beer-fueled crypts and are reveling in a candidate who appears as ignorant as they are on the issues and is actually proud and unapologetic about it. It’s as though every sweat hog and slacker from high school gathered together to violently expel the principal, faculty and all the honors students from campus and then still expected to graduate and get good jobs.

Intelligence, intellect, accomplishments, facts, manners and even polite speech are derided as pejorative characteristics of “The Establishment,” all those bright Poindexter types who’ve hijacked the country and conspired to keep the average Joe down for their own gain. It’s time for the revolution of the ignorant.

That Trump is a privileged Ivy League graduate born to wealth and privilege is irrelevant to this voter so long as Trump talks the talk of blaming anyone and everyone for the county’s failures – naming scapegoats both foreign and domestic and offering not one coherent, logical or practical solution to what may ail the nation.

All the polls in Florida have Trump beating Senator Marco Rubio by double digits. It just doesn’t matter to me. On Tuesday, this Florida Republican will cast his vote for Rubio to try and stop Trump. In reality, I lean towards Ohio Governor John Kasich but he doesn’t stand a chance in the Sunshine State so I’ll go with the native son. I’ll also be voting for Rubio because I have a conscience, I have to sleep at night, I have to live with myself.

It must be remembered that the Nazis were elected to power in Germany in 1933. All that’s necessary for evil to triumph in Florida is for good Republicans to split their vote between Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz and Kasich. I urge all Florida Republicans to put aside their personal preferences and coalesce around Rubio. If most Cruz and Kasich voters go for Rubio he can beat Trump and beating Trump is the duty of all Republicans who still cherish the values of Abraham Lincoln, of U.S. Grant, of Theodore Roosevelt, of Calvin Coolidge, of Dwight Eisenhower, of Ronald Reagan and of the Constitution. Don’t let Trump be inevitable. Get out and vote. Make your vote stand for something and stand for something right, noble and good.

The Zeitgeist

Fox News' Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier

Crimes of Omission: Primary Election Coverage a Triumph of Superficiality by Broadcast News Media

(Note: This article was written and appeared originally on March 2nd, 2016 on InauguralClock.com)

If one subscribes to the blather emanating from the incessant talking heads on cable TV news one would come away thinking that four states or 11 states or 15 states have already predetermined the outcome of the 2016 presidential season – that it’s unstoppable manifest destiny that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton at the helm for the Democrats. What’s the point for people in the other 35 states to even vote? National composite polls are presented as a fait accompli even though there is no such thing as a “national primary” and this arguably helps skew actual election results as voters are influenced by supposed “inevitability.”

Declarations to the effect that both Donald and Hillary are “electoral juggernauts,” and are “running the table” never cease, yet the crimes of omission on the part of the anchors, reporters and pundits are stupendous.

Key omission number one – hardly anyone on TV mentions that many of the primaries are “open,” meaning that voters often don’t have to be a registered voter in the party’s primary they’re voting in. In many states Independents can vote in either party’s primary thereby substantially skewing the results and the wishes of the core party members. Voter registrations and party affiliations can be switched pretty quickly, also throwing off the wishes of the party faithful. Why many early voting states allow this kind of open and chaotic cross-party pollination is beyond me. Why should non-Republicans or non-Democrats determine who their respective parties will nominate for the highest office in the land? Primary results are then presented as though they were authentic gauges of party members’ sentiments when in fact they’re often not.

Key omission number two – anchors and reporters for example will say that “Trump is winning in every state” or “Hillary is sweeping the primaries” without explaining how many or how few delegates may come from being victorious in any given state’s race. All state wins aren’t created equal. For example, winning in Texas is worth a whole lot more than winning in Vermont but the TV news folks just tally-up how many states someone won without giving any perspective or reference and based on that a candidate is either inevitable or over. Also, because the cable news guys are all in New York, late-breaking results from the center or the west of the country are given short-shrift in the big picture. For example, on Super Tuesday, Bernie Sanders won in Colorado and Minnesota but all the talking heads had written Sanders off by 8:00pm without those results.

Key omission number three – There’s been few delegate count tally screens (especially on Fox), just screens showing results of who won which state. This is incomplete information because not all states have equal delegates and therefore are not necessarily as significant. You can win small Southern states all day long but if you can’t win in New York, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and California, you can’t be nominated. Context is missing in its entirety. For example, Sanders isn’t “over” when as of March 2^nd he’s only 191 delegates behind Hillary with 35 states to go and 2,383 delegates needed to secure a nomination. Likewise, Ted Cruz is only 90 delegates shy of Trump with the same 35 races still to go and 1,237 delegates needed to win. Ninety is not Mount Everest but if you listen to the cable people you’d think it might as well be Mars. Why they declare the races to be over so early if baffling because you would think it’s in their interest to keep the horse races rolling on and on to generate ratings. The composition of the populations of many state races ahead favor candidates other than Trump and Hillary but you just don’t hear any of that.

Key omission number four – Donald Trump hasn’t even reached 50 percent of the vote in any state or any race anywhere yet his wins by slim pluralities are presented as resounding mandates and crushing victories over his rivals. No one discusses why Trump can’t reach 51 percent and what it means that roughly 60 to 65 percent of GOP voters are voting against him. If you want to see a resounding victory or mandate from the voters look at Hillary’s results in Alabama where she got 77 percent of the vote or Georgia where she garnered 71.3 percent. Likewise, Sanders snatched 86.1 percent of the vote in Vermont. Those are mandates and crushing victories. In other states like Oklahoma, Sanders got 51.9 percent to Hillary’s 41.5. That’s a clear majority because it’s over 50 percent. In Minnesota, Sanders received 61.7 percent. Another clear majority. When Trump gets 38.8 percent in Georgia, this is not any kind of majority. Likewise he got 32.7 percent in Arkansas and just 38.9 percent in Tennessee.

Also omitted are what Trump’s electoral results may mean in a general election (again, limited context) because let’s take one of his best results, Massachusetts at 49.3 percent (with heavy voting by Independents and Democrats in the GOP primary). Since Republicans are just 23 percent of registered voters in the nation, extrapolating his win means that if he got the same support across the GOP nationwide that would translate into just 11.3 percent of the entire American electorate which is a sure way to replicate a Barry Goldwater-like crushing defeat in the general election (Goldwater got 38.47 percent of the popular vote and just 52 votes in the Electoral College). If Trump were racking-up results like Hillary and Sanders in their big wins then it would mean he’s got the backing of the Republican rank-and-file but this context is never mentioned on air.

Key omission number five – no pressing follow-ups – on-air personalities hardly ever press Trump in particular with follow-up questions on any given subject when he evades or ignores the question or gives an obfuscating answer. Most on-air people just move on to the next question hoping for a better answer to that one so he gets away with providing no answers to the American people. A key example of this has been an utter dearth of follow-ups about his releasing of his income tax returns despite the IRS clearly saying that anyone can release their returns even if those returns are being audited and that non-audited returns from earlier years can also be released and Trump gets away with this time and time again.

Key omission number six – Poll results and bandied about with much breathless excitement but hardly ever mentioned are the dates when the poll was conducted, how many voters were polled out of how many registered voters (a quarter percent anyone?), how the poll was conducted (i.e., by landline telephone which is how most polls are done, which is not an accurate way to reach a broad cross-section of Americans in 2016) and what are the demographics of those polled? Yet a poll of 1,000 people reached via landline three days before is presented as the sentiments of the American people and can become self-fulfilling prophesies.

What all this says is that sadly broadcast news is terribly superficial and ephemeral and underscores the essential nature of print and web journalism to provide deeper analysis, context and perspective for the average American voter. Unfortunately, most Americans still get most of their news and information from broadcast and cable news which may partly explain why the country is beset and saddled with the kind of underwhelming candidates we’ve got for 2016 from both parties.