How crazy is too crazy?
By most accounts, it hasn't been a good week for candidate Trump. I say "most" because The Donald has die-hard ditto-heads, like the ones attached to Limbaugh's ample ass (and there's probably substantial overlap between those groups). His problem has been his mouth, as usual, though that's just the thing that makes noise. It's the policy implications of a Trump presidency that scares the hell out of me, not the fact that he has terminal foot-in-mouth disease. In with Trump would come all of the worst players in the Republican establishment - the war starters, the torturers, and so on - plus a substantial cadre of tea party freaks to fill in all of the gaping holes in his action plan as president. He took zero interest in the drafting of the GOP platform, tossing it off to these rancid constituencies. The result has been a remarkably reactionary document, far to the right of any the party has drafted before.
Does this bother the Republican establishment? Not at all. They get a little bothered by his off-hand comments and rejoinders to everyone who looks askance at him. Overt racist policies, ethnic cleansing, etc., inspires mild concern. I think the turning point was Trump's reluctance to endorse Paul Ryan and other prominent Republicans - that's getting their attention, and now the party is openly looking for ways to rein him in or read him out. I don't think either will happen, frankly. His fellow Republicans worry about their seats, not about the planet - they don't care that this hyper narcissistic man-baby who seems to have a fascination with nuclear weapons might become president.
Maybe it's because we've had potential world-destroyers in the highest office before, right? Like Truman, who contemplated bombing the border between North and South Korea. Or Kennedy, who nearly blew us up over the right to keep some obsolete missiles in Turkey - missiles we had already secretly planned to remove. Or the unabashed racist Nixon who wanted to use nukes on Vietnam. Or Reagan who almost touched off a nuclear exchange with Russia by repeatedly probing their perimeter defenses until a miscalculation on the Soviet side nearly sent the missiles flying.
Or maybe it's because they're too craven to care about anybody other than themselves. My money's on that one.
luv u,
jp
Does this bother the Republican establishment? Not at all. They get a little bothered by his off-hand comments and rejoinders to everyone who looks askance at him. Overt racist policies, ethnic cleansing, etc., inspires mild concern. I think the turning point was Trump's reluctance to endorse Paul Ryan and other prominent Republicans - that's getting their attention, and now the party is openly looking for ways to rein him in or read him out. I don't think either will happen, frankly. His fellow Republicans worry about their seats, not about the planet - they don't care that this hyper narcissistic man-baby who seems to have a fascination with nuclear weapons might become president.
Maybe it's because we've had potential world-destroyers in the highest office before, right? Like Truman, who contemplated bombing the border between North and South Korea. Or Kennedy, who nearly blew us up over the right to keep some obsolete missiles in Turkey - missiles we had already secretly planned to remove. Or the unabashed racist Nixon who wanted to use nukes on Vietnam. Or Reagan who almost touched off a nuclear exchange with Russia by repeatedly probing their perimeter defenses until a miscalculation on the Soviet side nearly sent the missiles flying.
Or maybe it's because they're too craven to care about anybody other than themselves. My money's on that one.
luv u,
jp
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