It appears that republican voters have whittled down to two, remaining viable contenders for their presidential nomination. One I call a carnival barker and the other a religious zealot. Trump, the carnival barker, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAbMLoLlyU is capable of selling a ticket to his show through hook or crook. He has the ability to nuance his message just enough to attract those who are easily distracted from reality by offering an outlandish alternative. His histrionics are carefully utilized to sensationalize the mundane in order to disguise that he is not a person of depth nor wise conceptualization. Thus the carnival barker moniker. He plays to his audience in order to bring them into his tent so that he can fill them with a lust and greed that they so desperately desire.
The other is Cruz, the religious zealot, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/22/1473694/-Ted-Cruz-I-m-a-Christian-first-American-second-Imagine-if-Muslim-or-Jewish-politician-said-that. He has made it clear that his allegiance first and foremost is to his "belief system" not to our democracy. It sort of begs the question of why he isn't in a pulpit somewhere extolling the virtues of his "belief system" instead of trying to become the leader of our democracy. Upholding democratic values of equality, fairness and opportunity are often in conflict with religious tenets, so he is saying that when conflicts do occur he would side with the religious tenets over democratic values. This is the state of republican politics as of this writing. Two republicans who have little respect to no idea of how democratic principles have built our great nation. Both want to supplant democracy with either illusion or theocracy.
There are many republican voters out there who would seem to be happy enough with either candidate so trying to be rational about the ridiculousness of this race would be foolish. Our American electorate is not a well educated one when it comes to politics or our own civic history. We are a continually less articulate society that has much too much confidence in our own individual conclusions. We fool ourselves with short cuts because we are not strong or demanding enough of ourselves to do things the right way. All we are doing is taking what is still great about our country, land of the free and home of the brave, and whittling that down to land of the enslaved and home of the fearful. We are apparently about to get what we unfortunately deserve with either republican.
The other is Cruz, the religious zealot, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/1/22/1473694/-Ted-Cruz-I-m-a-Christian-first-American-second-Imagine-if-Muslim-or-Jewish-politician-said-that. He has made it clear that his allegiance first and foremost is to his "belief system" not to our democracy. It sort of begs the question of why he isn't in a pulpit somewhere extolling the virtues of his "belief system" instead of trying to become the leader of our democracy. Upholding democratic values of equality, fairness and opportunity are often in conflict with religious tenets, so he is saying that when conflicts do occur he would side with the religious tenets over democratic values. This is the state of republican politics as of this writing. Two republicans who have little respect to no idea of how democratic principles have built our great nation. Both want to supplant democracy with either illusion or theocracy.
There are many republican voters out there who would seem to be happy enough with either candidate so trying to be rational about the ridiculousness of this race would be foolish. Our American electorate is not a well educated one when it comes to politics or our own civic history. We are a continually less articulate society that has much too much confidence in our own individual conclusions. We fool ourselves with short cuts because we are not strong or demanding enough of ourselves to do things the right way. All we are doing is taking what is still great about our country, land of the free and home of the brave, and whittling that down to land of the enslaved and home of the fearful. We are apparently about to get what we unfortunately deserve with either republican.
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