[A version of this column is posted at politicalstorm.com/]
Day after day, Donald Trump speaks another outrage.
Last Tuesday, it was his outrageous comment about what “Second Amendment people” could do if they disapproved of Hillary Clinton’s appointment of judges. That has been widely seen as a veiled incitement to use violence.
First of all, let’s make it perfectly clear – as many Libertarians may be considered “Second Amendment people” – absolutely nothing in the Second Amendment contemplates, countenances, allows, encourages or tolerates – or even implies – acting out a political difference with a gun.
The one consolation in having to bear witness to Donald Trump’s string of outrages over these many months:
It is now impossible for him to become president of the United States.
Donald Trump continues to alienate so wide a swath of Americans that he cannot possibly assemble a majority of voters across the country at-large, and probably not in any single state. Republicans are abandoning him in droves, from elected officials to the rank-and-file. The New York Times reports that his necessary support of Republican women has evaporated.
The conventional scenario for a Trump victory requires that he hold onto, at least, the Mitt Romney states – which he cannot, because he’s shattered that Republican coalition. An alternative scenario, where he pulls in enough new voters to win the election – it would take tens of millions of them – is a belief in magic. Those voters don’t exist, but if they did, Trump lacks the organization to find them, register them, and bring them to the polls.
The die-hard notion that there’s some “Great Silent Immoral Majority” which will swell to his vulgar brand is nonsense. If Republican politicians, who wager their careers on each election, thought this were remotely possible, they would not be fleeing.
The last fall-back argument, “that’s all wrong, the media is a conspiracy, the Brits did Brexit, so anything’s possible,” could equally argue that the Earth is flat. Not everything is possible.
Trump has offended the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, abused the Second, alienated women, immigrants, Muslims, Hispanics, blacks, soldiers, and disparaged the grieving family of a decorated war hero.
The “wall” he’s built separates him from most of America.
Our country has already rejected him. He is no longer a viable candidate to become president.
Like a blusterous hurricane that lingered too long over land,
the danger of a Trump presidency has, at last, blown offshore,
to blow itself out, adrift at sea.
This campaign, in its remaining three months, is now a two-candidate contest between Hillary Clinton and Gary Johnson.
Since her nomination in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton’s only message to the country is that she’s the lesser of evils. Her campaign has become only a play on the fear of electing Trump.
● She’s stopped running on her record. Being in, or next to, power for over 30 years, she has presided over the creation of the problems we face today. Yet, she no longer tries to make the case that her decades-old formula of ever-larger government, including more entitlements and higher taxes, can succeed in the future, where it’s failed in the past. Were those solutions, the nation’s problems would have been solved by now.
● She’s no longer justifying her “recklessly-careless” handling of classified documents – which would have gotten any other federal employee disciplined or fired.
● She’s no longer trying to explain how the “Bill ‘n Hill Foundation” isn’t a “pay to play” operation, with them taking in $153 million, while she was in the position to grant enormously valuable deals to donors and, evidently, did so.
● She still won’t divulge her Wall Street speeches. The firms that paid Hillary hundreds of thousands of dollars for a speech weren’t buying the words. If Hillary had given you, devoted reader, the text of the speech, Goldman Sachs would not have paid you $375,000 to read it aloud. They were not buying a speech. They were buying Hillary. And Hillary was selling.
Since Trump cannot win, her fear-based campaign is devoid of rationale.
Gary Johnson is not Trump, either. Yet, he seeks the Presidency not as a “lesser evil,” but a greater good. He can promise America an administration —
● that’s fiscally responsible, committed to making the federal government both smaller and smarter – less intrusive, less restrictive, allowing individuals more opportunity and more freedom to make their own choices for themselves and their families;
● that’s tolerant and accepting, letting people choose to live how they want without government interference. As Bill Weld likes to say, they will “Get the government out of your pocketbook and out of your bedroom.” Most people want to be allowed to live and let live – which makes them Libertarian, at heart;
● that pursues a foreign policy grounded in discipline, restraint, and collaboration among our allies, a defense impregnable enough to keep the country safe, without the hawkish military adventurism that Hillary Clinton advocates;
● that’s grounded in Gary Johnson and Bill Weld’s 16 years of combined executive government experience, each a two-term governor (that’s 16 more than Trump’s and Hillary’s combined), and their demonstrated record of achieving pragmatic, bi-partisan solutions to real problems; and
● that’s even-tempered, mild-mannered, respectful, candid, truthful – and scandal-free.
That would conclude this stormy election season under clear skies.