It’s one week away from Election Day. Cathy and I both filled out our absentee ballots last night and they’ll go out in today’s mail. I think it’s pretty safe to say that most people have made up their minds about who they are voting for and most polls show Hilary holding on to a very thin margin in the general election but a fairly comfortable lead in electoral votes, which means that she is probably going to be our next President. I was hopeful that Trump would get a shellacking, and there are still indications that he might, but I’m getting less convinced that will happen. Either way the Republican Party of the past is going to look very different; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that it would split into two parties. There are a lot of Republicans who are holding their noses and voting for Trump, but the number of party stalwarts who have come out publicly that they are voting for Clinton is telling. Of course, those nose-holders could probably better be described as a vote against Hilary, but that’s true for pretty much every election.
I also predict that even if Clinton wins by a fair margin, the Legislative branch is going to be split between Houses or will stay Republican. And unless Democrats take the White House with a resounding mandate, the unprecedented nastiness of this presidential race does not bode well for a legislature that will be any more cooperative for Hilary than it was for Obama. And that means nothing significant will happen. John McCain has already stated that if she wins he is going to do whatever is necessary to block her Supreme Court nominees. Ironically, it was working with McCain in the Senate that got Hilary her chops early on. And even the unlikely event of a Trump win (an unmitigated disaster for this country), the enemies he has created in his own party in this race are not going to fall all over themselves to cooperate with him in destroying the country with his mix of arrogance, stupidity and hubris).
I do have a small amount of hope that the Republican Party leadership, realizing how disastrous this election was for their brand, will disavow their romance with the nut jobs on the far right (religious whackos, Tea Party loyalists and Alt-Right loons) and try to resurrect their brand of old. Except for his hawkishness, Goldwater is starting to look pretty sane! If they don’t go back to the drawing board and try to rebuild from scratch, we should all remember that it was the anger at a do-nothing government that lead to the Trump candidacy.
Who knows? Social liberal/fiscal conservatives (like me) might even find there’s a candidate or two in that new/old Republican Party they could vote for in good conscience.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer.
Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.
I can’t wait for this to be over.
It’s one week away from Election Day. Cathy and I both filled out our absentee ballots last night and they’ll go out in today’s mail. I think it’s pretty safe to say that most people have made up their minds about who they are voting for and most polls show Hilary holding on to a very thin margin in the general election but a fairly comfortable lead in electoral votes, which means that she is probably going to be our next President. I was hopeful that Trump would get a shellacking, and there are still indications that he might, but I’m getting less convinced that will happen. Either way the Republican Party of the past is going to look very different; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that it would split into two parties. There are a lot of Republicans who are holding their noses and voting for Trump, but the number of party stalwarts who have come out publicly that they are voting for Clinton is telling. Of course, those nose-holders could probably better be described as a vote against Hilary, but that’s true for pretty much every election.
I also predict that even if Clinton wins by a fair margin, the Legislative branch is going to be split between Houses or will stay Republican. And unless Democrats take the White House with a resounding mandate, the unprecedented nastiness of this presidential race does not bode well for a legislature that will be any more cooperative for Hilary than it was for Obama. And that means nothing significant will happen. John McCain has already stated that if she wins he is going to do whatever is necessary to block her Supreme Court nominees. Ironically, it was working with McCain in the Senate that got Hilary her chops early on. And even the unlikely event of a Trump win (an unmitigated disaster for this country), the enemies he has created in his own party in this race are not going to fall all over themselves to cooperate with him in destroying the country with his mix of arrogance, stupidity and hubris).
I do have a small amount of hope that the Republican Party leadership, realizing how disastrous this election was for their brand, will disavow their romance with the nut jobs on the far right (religious whackos, Tea Party loyalists and Alt-Right loons) and try to resurrect their brand of old. Except for his hawkishness, Goldwater is starting to look pretty sane! If they don’t go back to the drawing board and try to rebuild from scratch, we should all remember that it was the anger at a do-nothing government that lead to the Trump candidacy.
Who knows? Social liberal/fiscal conservatives (like me) might even find there’s a candidate or two in that new/old Republican Party they could vote for in good conscience.
About BigBill
Stats: Married male boomer. Hobbies: Hiking, woodworking, reading, philosophy, good conversation.