Into the Belly of the Beast

In an unusual turn of events, Indiana’s primary mattered this year. Ours happens so late in the season that the candidates on either side usually have the nomination in the bag by now. This was a lot of fun for me because it meant that candidates actually made a stop in our state and in our city. I went to a Ted Cruz rally and left feeling really uncomfortable and vaguely horrified. I skipped the Sanders rally on Sunday because I just didn’t feel like going anywhere that day or dealing with people. I actually had tickets to attend the Trump rally the following day, but after Ken and I saw how many people were expected, we decided to avoid it. If Hillary had had an open event, I would have made sure to be there, though!

I’m glad I skipped the Trump rally because I can only handle so much idiocy right up in my face. I was able to live stream his speech and it helped to be somewhat removed from it. I told Ken that it was a good thing we didn’t go because there were several times when I laughed out loud at some of Trump’s statements, and I’m guessing that his supporters wouldn’t take kindly to someone laughing at their candidate. Even though he deserves every bit of derisive laughter he gets.

Anyway, Indiana had the dubious honor of going strongly for Trump and knocking Cruz and Kasich out of the fight for the nomination. As much as I loathe the oleaginous Cruz and the deceptively mild-mannered Kasich (bullshit policies delivered in a kind, reasonable voice are still bullshit policies), it is horrifying that the Vulgar Talking Yam (thank you, Charlie Pierce!) is the presumptive nominee of the Republican party.

I have voted Republican in the past. I think Richard Lugar was a fine Senator and I was happy to cast my vote for him more than once. Trump is about as far removed from someone like Richard Lugar as I am from an astronaut.

It looks more than likely that the Republican party is going to nominate a bigoted bully who seems to think that “political correctness” is an egregious concept that prevents him from saying whatever the hell he wants to without any consequences. And what he wants to say is misogynistic, racist, Islamophobic, and generally vile. I’m not sure when PC became a bad thing...I’m a big fan of treating others with respect and understanding that just because someone doesn’t share my views or beliefs or race or preference for peach pie over cherry doesn’t mean that they should be vilified.

Everything that comes out of his mouth is laughably absurd, including his economic plans for paying less on our debt, which virtually every economist is saying would be disastrous to the world economy. He changes his tune on issues in a matter of hours, not days. One of Trump's chosen delegates in California is a white supremacist.

It is beyond my comprehension that a significant portion of our populace is supporting this Cheesy Dorito (thanks, Holly!). He is not just ignorant and ill-informed on policy, he’s a fucking asshole. I am to the point where I honestly question the intelligence and competency of anyone who is supporting this nincompoop. I have friends and family who do, and while I continue to love them, I find that I simply cannot understand why they don’t see this demagogue for what he is: a power-hungry narcissist who won’t hesitate to burn the whole thing down.

Down the Rabbit Hole

When logic and proportion

Have fallen sloppy dead

And the White Knight is talking backwards

And the Red Queen's off with her head

~~ “White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane

Today my friend Dan said to me, “I never thought I’d see you at a Cruz rally!”

Neither did I, Dan. Neither did I.

In an unusual and unlikely turn of events, Indiana is surprisingly important in this year’s primary race, at least the Republican one (Hillary’s got it wrapped up on the Democratic side...it’s all over but the shoutin’). With our late primary date, we usually don’t get a whole lot of attention, either from the media or from the candidates. Getting all this attention is a mixed bag. We have to deal with phone calls (yay for caller ID!) and lots of political ads, but we also get candidates actually stumping in our state. That doesn’t happen very often, and for a political junkie like me, it’s total catnip.

So when my friend Cassie posted that she got a ticket for the Cruz rally here in our town, I thought, “You know what? I’m going, too!” (Neither of us are Cruz supporters or Republicans, by the way.) I got my free ticket and headed up late this afternoon.

It was quite an experience. The first thing I saw when I walked in was that line of posters up there. It was truly a WTF moment. (I snagged one of the double-sided posters on the way out. How could I not?) It was a good-sized crowd, although not a particularly large place, and although Hoosier Nice isn’t quite at the level of Minnesota Nice, it’s pretty damn close. Everyone was polite and nice. And very pale. Seriously, I think I saw maybe two people of color at the most. Not a diverse crowd at all, although Cassie and I were surprised at the number of younger people.

I was happy to find Cassie right away and meet a long-time Facebook friend in real life! Thanks for saving me a seat, Cassie! I also found Dan pretty quickly, as he was part of the press cadre and was busy talking to people and getting some pictures. We didn’t get to talk for long, but agreed that we need to make some time to do that! He snapped a couple of pictures of me and Cassie.

The rally began with a prayer—ahem—and the pledge of allegiance. Cassie and I stood but remained silent. I find the reciting of the pledge of allegiance kind of odd, although I know it’s common in both Republican and Democratic rallies. I’m not sure why we are supposed to do that. It’s a grade school thing that I don’t really feel the need to do. I’m an American, for Pete’s sake. Why do I have to pledge my allegiance?

Anyway, it was an awkward start to a rally that grew increasingly uncomfortable. First was Carly Fiorina. She is actually a very good speaker, if you ignore her content. She is very much the “attack dog” for Cruz. I won’t make any judgments about why he chose a running mate when he is obviously losing this nomination race. Wait, I think I will! Seriously, what the fuck, man? You don’t choose a running mate until you’re the actual nominee! As the media is saying, it is very much an act of desperation.

Then it was the main attraction, if you can call Ted Cruz an “attraction.” It was basically the stump speech I’ve seen him giving as I’ve watched coverage of these primaries. Some of the same lame jokes and one-liners that I’ve already heard. Hillary’s going to jail, the Washington establishment, blah blah blah. The crowd didn’t seem that into it at first, but as the rally went on, people started getting a little more agitated. Some of the biggest applause lines were that he would “repeal Obamacare” (can’t do that on your own, man) and that on Day One, he would “tear up” the Iran nuclear deal (can’t do that, either). Probably the biggest “boo-getter” was a mention of Planned Parenthood. That just made me sad.

Cassie stuck around and got her picture with Cruz and Fiorina—she told Cruz that she likes Planned Parenthood...way to go, Cassie!—but I really needed to get out of there. It’s hard to describe what I was feeling by the end of this rally. I felt very alone, but was happy to be sitting next to Cassie for the moral support. I felt a bit of despair that so many people were eating all this up. And oh, the irony of Carly Fiorina talking about losing jobs to Mexico! She said, “I know where the jobs are going.” Yeah, so do those 30,000 people you laid off! The hatred for the Affordable Care Act, the hatred for Planned Parenthood, the hatred for Hillary Clinton...it was just a big fat Hate Fest. I felt like a Stranger in a Strange Land, and I definitely did NOT grok this.

I’m glad I went but it was a little damaging to my psyche. I’ll bounce back! I guess I’d better, because I got tickets to go see the Vulgar Talking Yam (hat tip to Charlie Pierce) himself on Monday. I feel reassured that Ken is planning on going with me. A while after I got those tickets, I found out that Bernie Sanders is also going to stop here, on Sunday. I just can’t do it, though. I need my quiet Sunday and I will spend the afternoon girding my loins for Monday. I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to get in and I am not standing in line for hours.

We have a backup plan, though. Food and beers at Brew Werks! Victory with a capital V!

Taking your ball and going home

I’m sure all of my politically minded friends have seen what transpired at the last Republican debate, as well as the aftermath.

It was the usual tactic of attacking the media, saying that they were giving them “gotcha” questions, accusing them of being liberal, blah blah blah.

And this debate was on CNBC! The same CNBC whose Rick Santelli gave birth to the freakin’ teabaggers! Give me a break.

Anyway, it didn’t stop with several candidates piling on the media at the debate. Subsequently, the RNC decided to cancel the debate that it was holding with NBC because of their supposed liberal bias. I guess “liberal bias” means everything except for ass-kissing ClusterFox. ::eye roll::

Granted, some of the questions from the CNBC moderators were phrased poorly. However, the accusation of the Republicans that CNBC asked no “substantive questions” is absolutely absurd. They asked plenty of substantive questions, including about how so many of the answers and plans just did not add up. In other words, they were doing their job as journalists. The accusation that CNN wasn’t hard on the candidates at the Democratic debate is also absurd. They asked hard questions and pressed the candidates for answers, even putting them on the hot seat with questions to Sanders about his electability and to Clinton about her private email server. It was not “Which of you is more handsome and wise?” as Ted Cruz put it.

Here’s the thing: journalists are supposed to be journalists. They are supposed to ask questions about the candidates’ positions on various issues, and if the answers don’t make a lot of sense or don’t add up, or if the candidate just refuses to answer the question, they are supposed to press them on it. Debates are not held to let candidates have a free forum in which to speak uninterrupted or without further questioning. They are held to showcase the candidates’ positions, the difference between all the candidates, and it is the actual, bona fide JOB of the moderators to ask follow-up questions.

So the Republicans have decided that that is unacceptable and are calling for people like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh to moderate upcoming debates. I find this quite amusing on several levels.

First, they are coming across as petulant children who don’t like being challenged. At the first sign of criticism, they have decided they are going to pick up their ball and go home.

Second, if anyone thinks that Hannity or Limbaugh is unbiased and will be a fair moderator, let me just say right here that you need to go see someone because you are delusional.

Finally, if these candidates are going to bitch and moan about how the CNBC moderators and the “liberal media” are being mean to them, how in the hell do they think they are going to play with various actors on the global stage? If Putin disrespects them, are they going to throw a hissy fit? If Kim Jong-un decides to test a bomb, are they going to get the vapors and take to their room and cry themselves to sleep?

Come ON.

One more thing about this. This article by David Atkins at Political Animal raises an excellent question about whether or not the media and journalists everywhere will stand up to what is essentially bullying of their profession and an attempt at controlling the message. It’s a legitimate concern. You know who else controlled the media, right? Sure you do. Don’t make me Godwin myself.

Something like a phenomenon

Can someone please explain the reason for this strange behavior?

~ Duran Duran “Skin Trade”

I know I’m not the only one who is completely and utterly perplexed by the appeal of Donald Trump to a portion of our electorate. Has a segment of our population lost its collective mind?

I also know I’m not the only one trying to figure it out. I’ve been reading quite a few political articles about it, and have even gone back to watching (lawd help me) “Meet The Press” as the political class tries to come to grips as to how we have gotten to this point.

The best explanations that I have found have come from those who believe that Trump is tapping into a simmering rage that is happening with these people. His supporters seem to applaud him for “speaking the truth” and “telling it like it is.” They love his chest-thumping, America-is-the-greatest rhetoric, and they love that he is ready, willing, and able to offend multiple groups of people, including immigrants and women. They’re sick of political correctness and they’re not going to take it anymore!

It all seems to tap into the idea that their country is being taken away from them, made weak by all of those browns and blahs and wimmins and everyone else who isn’t a white conservative Christian. I can’t help but think of Richard Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” written in 1964, but eerily accurate in today’s atmosphere of toxic politics and this almost inexplicable support for Trump.

Given Trump’s lack of policy specifics, I also have to believe that Trump supporters are low-information voters. When asked about the Affordable Care Act, his response is that it’s terrible, and as president, he will repeal it and replace it with “something terrific.” How can anyone support a candidate who says something like that? It is preposterous. Maybe I’m weird, but I want my candidates to lay out specific policy details, and go into quite a bit of depth as to how they will fund and make it work. Anything less is posturing and bluster.

I don’t like the implications of this for our country. If people are willing to ignore policies because they like a guy who “tells it like it is,” that doesn’t say much for the intelligence or depth of our voting populace.

While this all plays out, my fellow Democrats and I are popping some popcorn and settling down to watch it all play out. Trump is the candidate they have been building towards for the last few decades, so I hope the Republicans are enjoying what they have wrought. You built this!

Don’t touch me I’m a real live wire

Man, I don’t know what is going on with my state of mind the past couple of days, but I’m feeling like a loaded gun with a hair trigger.

NO, I am not PMSing, mmmkay?

After a wonderful vacation with wonderful friends, I’ve been trying to get caught up on various things, getting back into my workouts, working towards my goal of reading 52 books this year (I’m at 44!), and gearing up for the holidays. I’ve also gotten back into my routine of keeping up with politics, and I think that’s the culprit here. In fact, I’m sure of it.

As I watch the shuffling parade of incompetence that is the Republican primary field, I find myself getting more and more stabby. As I observe people actually thinking that someone like Herb Cain or Newt Gingrich would make a good president, I want to take them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them. As I follow the super-committee’s latest proposals (quickly followed by the other side saying “That’s laughable!” and an immediate refusal) and continued unsuccessful negotiations, I just want to throttle the whole lot of them. There’s a reason Congress is less popular than not only Paris Hilton, but also the United States of America turning Communist, and it’s because they’re all behaving like petulant children with more than a little touch of brain damage.

And as I see the Occupy Wall Street protesters and those of us who support them categorized as lazy bums who want a handout and spend our days smoking weed and shitting on cop cars, I get very, very angry. Are there bad apples involved with the movement? Undoubtedly. You encounter douches in every walk of life. But the majority are people who see the vast and ever-increasing gap between the haves and have-nots and would like to see that change. Do we want to see the highest wage earners give away all their money? Do we want them to NOT make money? Of course not! However, it strikes me as fundamentally wrong to see CEOs making millions in salaries and bonuses, not creating any jobs, and slowly squeezing the life out of the American middle class.

Those who criticize the Occupy movement and see them as nothing more than unwashed hippies apparently missed the fact that the “American Dream” is on life support, and with the way we’re going, I’m not sure it can be revived. It is no longer enough to work hard and pull yourself up and get an education. I know plenty of college graduates who have been down-sized and downtrodden; when there are four people vying for every job available, there are no guarantees that you’ll find a job anytime soon. Our manufacturing jobs are being sent overseas, and I doubt they’re coming back. Our populace is under-educated and unqualified for many of the jobs that are out there. Yet the Republicans talk about cutting funds for Pell grants, and job training programs, and we just keep going deeper into the rabbit hole.

So yes. I’m angry, and I’m on edge. Washington would be wise to get it through their heads that I’m not alone in my anger.

Herman Centipede

No matter what you think of him, you have to give Herman Cain credit for maintaining a presence in the current conversation. I’ve been posting several news stories and getting into a few discussions about him on Facebook. Why, Beth (you might ask)? Do you really think he has a chance of getting the Republican nomination?

Not really...but after the popularity of Sarah Palin, I don’t take the gullibility of the American people for granted. Anything can happen in this strange state of the union in which we find ourselves.

A couple of my more conservative friends (yes, I really do have some, believe it or not) wrote that they like Cain. When pressed to explain why, they didn’t have much to say about that...just that they “like” him. When asked about whether they support Cain’s stance on abortion and gay rights, they seemed to be against Cain on those “issues.” But they never did articulate WHY they like him. One said that Cain would “mop the floor” with President Obama in a debate. (Whatever you’re smokin’, honey, feel free to send some of it my way!)

I was having an email discussion with Cousin Greg today (after wishing him a happy birthday!) and wrote something about the “inexplicable” popularity of Cain. I thought Greg had a pretty good take on it:

I think his popularity is easily explainable....People who like him or Ron Paul have the same mindset as many of those who voted for Obama in 2008. They believe that the key to turning the nation around is a strong, somewhat outsider personality rather than adherence to a handful of distinct policies.

That's why your friends can't talk in depth about the merits of his policies...Because they've attached themselves to Cain's problem solving methodology and personality rather than a specific policy or two.

I wrote that I mostly agree with what he was saying, but that while some people may have voted for Obama because of his charismatic personality, I cast my vote for him because I had read his books and liked his vision for our country, and because he had a lengthy and detailed plan of what he was going to do if he became President (I still have my copy of it). I do not see that with Cain, not one bit.

When he did put forth a policy, his 9-9-9 tax policy, it was roundly condemned by numerous, non-partisan analysts as being horribly regressive, placing increasing burden on the lowest income earners and giving the highest earners a huge tax break. When this was pointed out to him, his answer was, “Those analysts are wrong.” This week, he altered his policy to make one of the nines a zero for lower income people. I have to wonder why he didn’t think that out thoroughly before he took it public. One might think that he was just trying to come up with a catchy policy phrase instead of something that would really work.

He really wants to go head-to-head with President Obama on foreign policy? Cain constantly ducks questions about such issues by saying that he’s not privy to classified information, so he can’t offer his thoughts on it. Bish, if someone like me can read about these things and offer at least a casual opinion, so can you! You’re running for President! You need to know about these things! I would also recommend that you don’t ridicule the names of other countries because you think they sound funny. It’s Uzbekistan, not “Uz-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan.” When you’ve got the president of Afghanistan noticing and laughing about your comments, you can bet that he wasn’t really laughing. He was ridiculing your lack of knowledge about other countries, and dismissing you as a serious contender and as a world leader.

Then there are the bizarre ads his campaign put out this week. The strange “He Carried Yellow Flowers” ad, in which some actor I had to look up on IMDb says to a couple of whiskey-swilling, tobacky-chewing ne’er-do-wells who dare to question his yellow flowers, “Why has it always gotta be about color? What are you guys, liberals?” and then punches them both in the face. Then there is the über-strange “Now is the Time for Action” ad, in which his campaign manager, Mark Block, talks about how America has never seen a candidate like Herman Cain (all the while shaking his head...what?), and then takes a drag off a cigarette and blows the smoke towards the camera. What. The. Hell? It’s almost surreal in its bizarreness. (But apparently Herman is just giving a shout-out to his former buddies. As a lobbyist with a restaurant association, Cain worked hard to help Big Tobacco in their lobbying efforts, including fighting against smoking bans in restaurants.) Everyone from David Letterman to Stephen Colbert to Jon Huntsman’s three oldest daughters have made parody ads. (My personal favorite was the Colbert ad featuring a huffer, followed by his Slow Smile Contest challenge to Cain.)

As I clarified with Greg, Cain’s popularity is inexplicable to ME. If you spend any amount of time looking at this guy, his policies, his outlook (Don’t have a job? Blame yourself! Want to cross the border illegally? Fry on our electric fence!), and his lack of knowledge, I don’t know how anyone can support him for the highest office in the land. We are just starting to get our respect in the world back; do you really want our leader to be known as That Pizza Guy who can’t make heads nor tails of all the Stan countries? If he showed at least a glimmer of knowledge about such matters, I wouldn’t be as dismissive, but COME ON.

I don’t doubt that the Cain bubble will burst soon, just like the Bachmann and Perry bubbles burst. He just can’t sustain this kind of bizarre behavior and continue to get a pass. But sometimes I can be a little too optimistic about the ability of the American people to see what seems perfectly obvious, so I’ll keep posting things about Cain until he tanks just like the others. If by some strange chance he doesn’t tank and actually wins the nomination, there will be plenty of fodder for his run against President Obama.

Who’s next? Santorum? That should be fun, too!