Most believe that what is working at this stage will hurt him in the next. Nonetheless, he is winning the game and he is changing parts of it at the same time. In the next stage, Trump could take US all on a full fledged collision course with the power of the party establishment and it's layers of protections installed by- and for- the two political parties that created the electoral game to begin with. Trump is smart enough to understand this, but he will need to be a genius to bring it down as a third party candidate, or overtake it from within to become the next GOP nominee absent establishment consent.
If WE finally took down that divisive confederate flag because of it's capacity to inspire hate and the death of the Emmanuel 9, you would think that the republican establishment could take down Trump. Except, of course, WE did nothing to remove the ideas or the people who fought to raise that toxic, anti-American flag in the first place. The people, their thoughts, and that flag still fly.
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| If you need your answer to Donald Trump, don't forget that WE never actually removed the confederate flag from S. Carolina, a state that has Donald Trump clearly winning their primary. |
All that being said, Trump is past being an anomaly and has moved into becoming a full fledged test of our fractured republic. He is the conductor on this inevitable collision course with our system of delegates and electors; the same system that allowed George W. Bush to win a disputed election over Al Gore in which Gore actually won the popular vote, but- thanks to slow lines, hanging chad's and election laws- still lost the election.
Although most of US voted to make it happen, I am not certain that WE deserved an Al Gore presidency. We probably only deserve the repercussions of about half of our eligible voters taking part. Without enough people who care to say yes or no either way, it is likely that WE've earned our rigged electoral vote and voter suppression efforts across the land instead of a more democratic 'count the vote' , everybody votes, system of voting participation that could help us choose a leader and maybe even address gun violence once and for all.
For better or for worse, WE didn't prove ourselves ready or worthy of president Al Gore going full bore into his climate change agenda. Despite never before seen flooding in Missouri- in the middle of winter- we remain more afraid of Gore's global warming agenda than global warming itself. Which, like gun violence, seems an easier problem to dispute than defeat.
Fear of fixing our fractured republic is how we ended up with two terms of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, 9-11, extreme deficits from an expensive, endless war, and a worldwide economic collapse that our home finance banking system caused. Oh yeah, let's not forget the deeper chasm of distrust between Islam and the West that is feeding the Jihad and leaving our world more unpredictably dangerous and more scary than before Cheney and Bush promised they would fix it.
That fear has returned despite the immense efforts of President Barack Obama, who has kept us fairly safe while repairing broken bridges with Islam around the world. Obama's community organizer, voter turnout skills have also clarified to many common people the power of the populace at the same time that it inspired his awestruck opponents, still unsettled by their defeat at his hands. Consequently, whether you are for him or against him, this president has shined a light on the power of establishment approval (bagging delegates) and the necessity of an overwhelming voter turnout to encourage (not insure) an equitable outcome.
The dark side to this story is that having some form of a count the vote system in place right now instantly makes Donald Trump's pursuit to be our next president much more scary and not just terribly annoying. And while all of his divisive Trumpeting feels quite scary, our greater fear should be the power of establishment politics that makes Trump's chances virtually impossible. If he truly represents the voice of as many Americans as it appears, then democracy says that WE deserve a Trump presidency. In a representative republic, those who finance the game control the players.
Trump knows this because he was the Big Money that paid for elections and bought influence, sending some of his own big money to players on both sides of the game. (View this Big Money video) This is also why Trump won't take a penny from Big Money donors, and wants you to know every time they offer it to him.
What remains somewhat scary is that a whole lot of my moderate friends, family and neighbors, are totally grooving to Trump's song and dance. Many middle of the road'ers, who don't really follow politics until campaigns or scandal, understand the words and feelings that Trump's been shouting to maintain his lead in the GOP polls. The truth is that Trump listens very closely, and he actually heard you tweet these fears and frustrations first. Trump is striking a chord with so many because he is basically retweeting what he heard you say, and what he thinks you meant.
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??
To be frank, we all understand where the fear is coming from. Most of US have considered the question of these new strains of Jihadi extremism seeking claim over Islam's identity? If you also understand the Christian Crusades, the Salem witch hunts or the KKK, you likely know enough already to explain this fight over the face of Islam too.(Al-Shabaab's Trump recruiting video)
It's not entirely different than the fight over the face of the GOP. Each of the recent extensions of right wing ideology (Tea Party, Libertarians, and now Trumpians) agree on the necessity of a platform of extreme ideas to save their party and the nation from inevitable ruin. Unfortunately, that's where republicans depart. Who, or how the GOP paves a way forward is torn between Love of God extremism versus Smaller Government extremism and the tug-o-war to prove each version of extremism more right.
Extreme views breed extreme behaviors, and millions of moderate, reasonable lover's of America, who also consider themselves Christian, remain tormented by their personal intolerant interpretations of scripture, and a fear that America is moving away from its intolerant Christian roots by allowing other extreme roots- with similar behaviors of intolerance- to grow right in front of our face.
As ISIS begs Obama and the West to meet them in the field of battle for ground war, they themselves hide within the community of innocent bystanders as a protective cover. These bandits are mostly a gang of punks and thugs with really cool video recruiting skills and religious zealot leaders exercising their own extreme interpretation of scripture, while recruiting the angry son's and daughter's of the world to handle the martyrdom so they can continue spreading extreme ideas. Whether WE the People of America are ever going to counter them with real war or with better videos containing better ideas, this fight, and our plan, must ultimately be debated and approved within the halls congress.
One major reason for the rise of Trump is a congress that has strategically chosen to "Do Nothing" valuable if Barack Obama might gain legacy points from it. Even attempting to reverse their do nothing tactic is internally viewed as an instant waste of all the damage they caused by doing nothing in the first place.
This is probably why the recent bill overturning of Bush's landmark "No Child Left Behind" law was mostly missed by the public. For this congress to turn tail now and push forward the necessary legislation that could help move the country forward (infrastructure bill, immigration bill, ACA reforms) would invalidate the central mission of minimizing the Obama legacy at all cost.
Meanwhile, WE the People, give blind consent to this type of congressional terrorism when only 50-60% of America stands up to say that we believe in the power of our vote to begin with. Without most of US helping to exercise leadership through our vote, all of US become the sheep of blind and bull headed congressional shepherds.
Vote!
Be Heard!
An ideal democracy demands that everyone be heard before congress can act accordingly?
It might seem fool hearty and somewhat melancholy to dream of the day that most of US vote, and America actually lives up to the purpose of its founding. But dreams are what inspire every idea, and democracy is an idea that deserves a proud, functioning example somewhere in this world. Why not US?
Can You Destroy Ideas Without Eliminating Thought?
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| How about this idea? Only Love can conquer |
I am saddened that anybody close to me, next door perhaps, is pushing Trump's poll numbers to be what they are. But mostly this stuff is disrupting my sensibilities. Does Trump get to be the one to finally challenge, maybe dismantle the electoral and the two party game as we know it? Together, they conspire to be the leading obstacles against the dream of democracy for America, a nation founded on the dream of democracy.
Our electoral system allows for the type of political collusion that could actually become necessary to stamp down Trump, or any fascist, and keep them from taking over a party convention and eventually the face of America as well. Party delegates won't want Trump to continue going rogue, yelling toxic rhetoric under the republican umbrella, but they are even more afraid of him trying to Make America Great Again through a third party run. Trump himself actually wants no part of that third party thing either. As a third party candidate, he must try to accumulate unattainable delegate support for any hope of graduating from America's electoral college- which will be harder to achieve than his vaunted Wharton degree.
Rand Paul is a devout Libertarian (whatever that means). But it was due to Trump, not Paul, that the GOP created that pledge of party allegiance, and the only reason they are threatening a brokered convention as well. Trump is also the only reason that establishment GOP candidates are pressuring New Hampshire's "first of" primary status for having the audacity to allow him to lead their polls and potentially win their primary. Apparently, the GOP establishment can't afford to let NH vote rogue without a sufficient counter threat against them.
If Trump can win Iowa (not likely) or NH (fairly possible), he legitimizes his run beyond his current 39% nationwide polling that appears to be his ceiling for now. Romney actually held strong at 45% during large portions of his run, yet still remained under constant assault from the establishment GOP that feared he couldn't win a general election polling so low among his own party. They were right that Romney was wrong, but Trump will not win a general election either without garnering the support of a decisive majority in his own party.
We know for certain that a capitulating moderate republican like Romney couldn't win the general, and we highly suspect that an internal rogue candidate won't be allowed to overtake the GOP convention without a fight. So how exactly does any external third party candidate overtake preordained, two party delegates and electors that are enlisted to help force feed us candidates of the two-party choosing?
If you research the parameters of this electoral business, here is how the federal government describes the electoral college of collusion that we use to choose a president.
"There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires Electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their States. Some States, however, require Electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote. These pledges fall into two categories—Electors bound by State law and those bound by pledges to political parties." (from archives.gov) http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html#restrictions
26 states in America have laws or pledges forcing some form of a democratic distribution of electoral votes. What these elector laws or party pledges don't erase is the fact that all of the current electors and delegates are selected from within the two-party design. As for those remaining 24 states? They have no laws at all to insure the democratic distribution of the votes from their state. In other words, each of these state's electors are free to go rogue, and must be planning to do so if talks of a brokered convention have begun, something that hasn't been done by either party in 60 years.
Keep in mind, however, that our sacred electors only become a relevant factor once candidates have survived the primary season to become a party nominee. Before we whittle the 2016 race down to two (or three) final candidates, the party delegates could also go rogue and rage against the state primaries and caucuses, forcing the selection of a nominee to be brokered (negotiated) again and again until a nominee, approved by the delegates emerges.
This is the threat that the GOP has made towards Donald "the rogue" Trump, and the reason why Trump is threatening a third party run in response, which could split the conservative vote in two and deliver a death nail to the GOP's chances of winning the presidency. For Trump to pull off a third party run, it must involve peeling away voters from both sides of the political spectrum complete with a massive voter turnout effort detailing how our electoral game is already rigged against US, especially when we fail to vote. Trump is already doing this against campaign finance and Political Action Committee's (PAC's) who launder Big Money towards today's campaigns and candidates.
Electors can ignore the will of voters, so electors own the vote. Ultimately, either WE own our own votes, or WE don't, and only a serious third party candidacy (which demands voter turnout) can unveil this shameful electoral truth to US all. Shameful like the millions of dollars Jeb Bush might be wasting away on a futile campaign. Unless, of course, its the Florida boys (Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio) that Big Money supporters are using the brokering threat to save.
It may or may not happen in 2016, but eventually a significant third party candidate is going to dominate the popular vote and fully disrupt the manner in which we assign and distribute electoral votes anyway.
I prefer that the long awaited privilege of pulling the curtain on OZ, would go to presidential candidates Lawrence Lessig, Jill Stein, or perhaps Bernie Sanders who proudly declares himself a democratic Socialist. If each of these candidates, pursuing distinctive and unique platforms, refuse to pursue them as a Third Party candidate, what does that say about the viability of third party candidacy? Any serious presidential candidate understands that the delegates and electors game make it a strong necessity to force feed their candidacy into one of the two political machines instead of chasing after third party support without a mechanism for harnessing delegates and electors to make the run viable.
Lately, Sanders is openly courting the moderate middle class Trump's supporters, while simultaneously forecasting his expectation of Trump's demise. Gobbling up Trump's left behind's would almost certainly demand Sanders also consider a third party run instead of hoping and wishing that those right leaning moderates will cast their votes to the democrat party. As a third party candidate, Sanders free's up a lot of moderate voters to express their anger at both failed parties of congress via voter turnout.
To the GOP, voter turnout feels like political terrorism. That is mostly because so many segments of the general populace get force fed into progressivism due to republican talks of fence building, Muslim banning, or when they stand behind county clerks that deny gay Americans their Constitutionally earned rights. In fact, voter turnout is political terrorism, but it is terrorism against whoever designed our rigged electoral system and whoever keeps it in place. Extreme voter turnout will expose the cracks in the electoral game, in our outdated voting machines and methods, and in the snake filled, mirky waters of the campaign finance hustle.
It was roughly eight years ago when Barack Obama won his party nomination and became our president by overwhelming Hillary Clinton with strong delegate support, and his social media, voter turnout ground machine that revolutionized the meaning of ground game forever. Back in August, when Joe Biden was still threatening a run at the presidency, Hillary was mostly able to dissuade Joe using the same approach, divulging that she had already secured a significant number of the necessary super delegates it will take to become the party's nominee, and revealing her Obama style voter turnout machine. Sanders will remain a political pest as long as he stays in the race, but Trump is usurping the importance of the primary and forcing the nation into an early general election war of words, thoroughly diminishing the stature of every other GOP candidate in the process.
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| Is there a chance that Trump is actually just trying to shake up our entire view of the presidential process we accept? |
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| Could Bernie win a 3rd Party bid too? He already thinks he could take over Trump supporters and give Hillary a repeat defeat. |
I've long since believed that WE needed someone to come along and disruptively test the electoral college system into it's own dismantling, though I never really saw it being someone so disruptive.
Trump could be on the verge of inspiring America's largest and laziest political group, non-voting moderates, into showing up on his behalf, shaking our whole system of democracy into instant re-examination and potentially legislative change too. Moderate voters who typically stay home, won't take too kindly to engaging in another big waste of time like they did during Bush .v. Gore, when several voting area's and thousands of people did not make it through the lines to cast a vote, or lost their vote to a hanging chad.
When this is all over, Trump's pursuit of the popular vote, absent the use of Big Money's money, and potentially without much delegate support either, could actually instigate "count the vote" measures by federally mandating state delegates and electors to follow the popular vote of their state.
Such a Constitutional change in voting, along with simplified voting for all, could inspire 80% or better voter participation and actually move US closer to the democracy WE deserve. It could also be the very thing that makes way for a president Trump one day. Whether you love or hate that idea, in a true democracy, you will get exactly what you deserve and not just the Big Money puppets that Big Money offers up for us to choose from. Until some nation in this world shows the courage and integrity that a true democracy demands, the idea of democracy remains theoretical supposition.
Why Not US?
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