The primaries are about to wrap up with a series of state results in early June. Time to check in once again with our occasional political commentary series, starring your commentary.
In recent news, Trump is edging ahead of Clinton in head-to-head polls, Clinton has backed out of debating Sanders in California, and Sanders… isn’t being covered much by the mainstream news anymore. If you look hard, Sanders is continuing to attract large crowds, does well in polls against Trump, and is calling out the DNC for being less than fair.
You’ll also see lots of calls for him to abandon his hopeless campaign that is damaging Clinton and helping Trump. He’s the new Nader! If it happens, we can blame Clinton’s loss to Trump on Sanders and his supporters rather than on the candidate! (If she wins, do we credit Sanders for helping to defeat Trump? No way!)
The GOP isn’t really falling into line behind their nominee with any great enthusiasm. Indeed, many still hold out hope of another candidate saving the party. Mitt Romney, anyone?
The Dems are split, too, trying to maintain the status quo and trying to have an aggressive agenda at the same time.
We also have Libertarians in the mix now, with William Weld becoming a VP choice for Gary Johnson. A pair of governors.
On to primaries, then to conventions and free-speech zones surrounded by cages.
What say ye? All going according to plan? Any predictions?
Moot Swings
For me the greatest causality of this electoral farce is the hit to our self esteem, as individuals, and however it can be calculated, as a collective.
I find myself swung between two poles: irreverence and irrelevance. No perception, insight or observation feels impactful, and no sarcasm or derision feels helpful.
In the Moot
I’m finding a lot of noise too while looking for the signal.
I try to watch actual campaign events in full rather than go by what the news reports. Candidate speeches, watched repeatedly, seem to inform me the most about each. There is spectacle, but also an extended chance to watch how they move, think, respond, act, pretend, lie, etc.
“I am shocked, shocked, that politicians are playing politics in this political process!”