Libertarians Are Seeking Presidency With No Policies

My questions of the Libertarian party have not really changed too much, but the growth in their political positioning has. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld are generally interesting enough to actually be worth worrying about if I were either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump and those two political parties they represent.

But let's not be confused. Johnson and Weld are not even really telling or selling you on any particular platform that they hope you are willing to buy into.  They are feeding themselves from the weight and collective will of the Libertarian party that has progressively groomed themselves for this very day with political concepts pleasing to the palate of would be voters looking to consume something new and revolutionary.  They are also feeding off of our disgust with the other options.

It's been a while since I've written about Libertarians because I started to feel like I was picking on a little kid who knows that they'll be big enough to let you have it one day, but can't figure out how to make it happen now. Their rise has been somewhat recent and extremely rapid as a "live and let live" offshoot of the Tea Party. Libertarians have had moment of sunshine ushered in by the steadfast dedication of the Paul family, Rand Paul and his famous Libertarian father Ron. Had Rand showed the courage to actually run as a Libertarian, perhaps he would be the Gary Johnson for the Libertarian's right now and more positioned to articulate policy plans like ending mass incarceration.

(Articles previously published January 2014)

Libertarian's Carrying Conservative Ideology Into Political Jungle

Libertarian Message Speaks To Everything Except Reality

Rand was not courageous enough to take that leap. Neither were Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump, who both found themselves stuck in the midst of a political party that they really had no business being in the midst of to begin with. Trump was fortunate enough to be the beneficiary of  too many years of GOP saber rattling and screaming in a crowded theater about the dangers of Barack Obama.  When those dangers never quite materialized to the level of the hysteria, it gave rise to Obama's approval ratings and a plummeting effect on the people and the election process to follow him.

In hindsight, the Obama's might have given us the last hint of dignity as a nation that we'll see for a while in both the manner in which they campaigned, and the integrity by which they lead this nation.  You may not like how much Barack golfs, but we thought Bush golfed too much too, and we know Trump is fully connected to the game and will spend plenty of time on the course.

In fact, two terms of Hillary might be the best hope we have for not complaining about our president golfing for a while.

I say that because Gary Johnson will be stuck in the weeds whether he is a golfer or not given his decision to stop smoking weed so that he could run for the presidency.

If Johnson has been toking since the 70's, and managed to accomplish as much as he has, do we actually trust him without the weed, or trust that he'll not return to the vice the moment Putin starts acting up?

Will giving up weed force Gary Johnson into more dangerous or embarrassing vices than he otherwise would have pursued as president?

I am now more inclined to find out about his stance on pot, because possessing it caused lots of people to be locked up unnecessarily. Our first admitted pot smoking president may really be the key to fixing some of this unfair incarceration problem.

The bigger problem is trying to determine that possibility or any other potential policy by reading the Libertarian platform.  Like I've said, the damn thing reads like a school book in which the chapters are broken into sections 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and so on. It feels like they originally only had 4 bullet points, but had to extrapolate that out to seem more thoughtful, so they went text book style in the format.

The whole thing includes a preamble and a statement of principles, followed by all of the bullet points which feel like nothing more than explanations to their statements of principles.  In other words, the Libertarian party platform is the most fence straddling piece of nothingness that I have ever seen in presidential politics including bullet point 4.0, "Omissions", which I copied and pasted below for your enjoyment.

4.0 Omissions

Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval.

The only thing close to real policy prescriptions is their idea to privatize healthcare, retirement (SSI) and education, but no real declaration of whether these departments would be eliminated or only kept for oversight of our new privatized entities who would undoubtedly cut corners for profit if given the unregulated freedom to do so.

With so little policy specifics in the Libertarian platform, it seems the party with the greatest opportunity to break the back of the two party monster, is mostly hoping that it will break on its own.  The campaign approach for Johnson and Weld is basically, if you are looking for something other than Hillary and Trump, check us out. 

Well I did check them out, and reading that platform felt like reading the Libertarian Manifesto and not some distinct plan for how a Libertarian president will actually preside over a fractured two-party congress reticent to put forth a Libertarian agenda when they can't even agree on their own convoluted ideas? Although consensus sounds like a fair approach to governing, consensus around more of the same failed policies of the party's you have replaced would be a waste of our FIRST third party president.

My appreciation for the possibility of Libertarians is strong, but mostly because my hate for two-party politics is stronger, and Libertarians  pose the greatest threat that we've seen yet.  If too many people are way too smart to be tricked by Hillary or Trump, what makes Libertarians think platitudes will suffice? I was originally of the mindset that it would take Libertarians quite a few years to have enough head count to risk an election by splintering off from their republican brethren, until I realized that they could do it now, but are not defining their mission enough to change minds.  If Johnson and Weld can't put more meat behind the bones they call a platform, it will take something tangible in Hillary's emails, along with more of the same from Donald, to actually make the, "choose me instead" Libertarian ticket viable. 

So maybe that's the reason for the platitude platform from the Libertarian ticket.  No sense in divulging to much specificity until you have a real chance of needing to use it.

Does Gary Kubiak Have Soft Spot For Backup QB's?

Don't forget your history Denver Broncos fans.

NFL teams are going to chase after the ways that worked until they don't work any more. For a few seasons now, defense has been fighting the offense tooth and nail to determine the championship path of perfection. While no one in Denver is going to complain about the heart trauma we endured en route to winning the crown, no one in Denver- especially the coach- wants to risk heart or health to have a season similar to last year if we can avoid it.

The idea that any champion would prefer not to repeat the same championship journey they just traveled is somewhat unusual when you think about it, but that doesn't take into account the truth of Denver's season.

The truth was as bumpy as riding a wild Bronco promises to be. That ride is actually the same that Denver fans have always endured, fighting to get national commentators that actually want us to win while working our nationally televised games.  Usually, we are the team they pick to lose.

Denver Bronco favorite, Norris Weese,
was injured in 1979 and passed away from cancer
at age 43.  Is this the year for Norris, and Gary?

I understand.  Our history has plenty of victories laced between predictably traumatic losses as well. Some NFL fans once made a business out of betting against the Broncos while I quickly learned the necessary knowledge of never betting for them.  Not that the Broncos don't win, they just never seem to win when my money is on the line.

That is our history.

Coming up short. Getting our hearts Orange Crushed before we could Mile High Salute at the world. We are the underdogs like Norris Weese.

Do you remember Norris Weese? Weese was the player we cried for when Craig Morton's old arse was giving us a headache, and our defense too much work again. Morton's geriatric similarities to what we endured last year, with an old and less than agile Peyton Manning, had this town screaming for the backup just like we did with Weese.

Weese almost saved us in our first Superbowl from having to listen today to Dallas Cowboys fans remind us that they won that game and that they are still America's Team. Thanks to that Superbowl IT session, Weese got the starting job the next year, but a knee injury that year (1979) ended his playing career forever. Weese passed away from cancer in 1995. He was 43 years old.

Thankfully, Manning's injury (wink, wink) made way for Brock Osweiler to prove himself a capable player in the league, but he also helped to prove that he really didn't have IT either, while proving the same thing that Manning had been proving before he got too hurt to watch anymore.

Osweiler and Manning both proved that Denver's defense was other worldly.

We just about saw the backup step up and be the hero, until suddenly he started to really look like a backup again.  How that scenario played out combined with how this current QB scenario is playing out shows telling signs of what happens when your head coach has been carrying the clipboard for too damn long.

Back in his playing days, Gary Kubiak was our other Norris Weese. Fans of sports love to engage in revisionist history, but the truth is that a lot of you fans did not really like Michael Jordan the way you like him now, and John Elway had to finally win a couple of titles to avoid the same career ridicule that Manning was about to endure if last year's SB50 win didn't fix that for him too.

Elway was a high risk player for years. For some time, his passes were too hot even for his own teammates to handle.  His first coach was way too conservative and often boxed the team into such predictability that we could be diagnosed and disrupted rather easily by the opposing defense.  Elway did not always thrive in that conservative format even though he always showed signs of IT. Like Paxton Lynch, Elway was drafted in the kind of slot that makes you have to show and prove, not sit and stew.

Between 1983 when Elway arrived and 1984 when we got rid of Steve DeBerg and forced our young QB to sink or swim, Elway got benched more than once. At first it was for the more experienced DeBerg, until we got rid of him, leaving backup duties in the hands of Kubiak. 3 out of 5 of Kubiak's career starts came during those first two season of Elway and Kubiak, simply because Elway was that bad back then.

What is the difference between a legendary starter and their backup?  We don't really know because those backups serve a role to make sure we never really get to know them that well.  They are the spot duty bridge that keeps the legend afloat throughout the season so that they can be legendary when times comes to make their legend known.

In reality, the legend Manning ended up being as good as he needed to be when he needed to be good. Yet, his good was the same good that Elway displayed when he finally became a champion himself. Both versions of good involved turning around and handing the ball to the bucking Bronco out of the backfield in Terrell Davis or CJ Anderson last season.

Denver, as a franchise, might be looking to return to the way it was, but the way it was had Hall of Fame quarterbacks winning titles in the end of their careers. Similarly, both were motivated and humbled by failure and frailty, seeking to end things on a good note.  The way it is NOW has two backups types trying to do what the HOF'ers typically take care of on championship teams while keeping the heir apparent away from his inevitable throne.

Will A Game Manager Do?

Trent Dilfer was already a regular starter of the Baltimore Ravens team that he is credited for "game managing" to a championship. That team was a lot like this team though, on the list of defensive GOAT's in the NFL. Denver's defense joined that conversation after winning the Superbowl last year, giving room and rise to the possibility of a "game manager" quarterback replacing Manning to help this team win it all again.

What we should consider is the fact that the Denver Broncos tried like heck to keep Brock Osweiler for too much money, but lost him to Houston for too much money.  Would the Broncos have offered too much money if Kubiak did not think Osweiler could be groomed to be worth the money? Early report from Houston is that Osweiler probably isn't really worth the money.

In other words, Mark Sanchez is not only trying to compete against his own butt-fumbling history, he is competing with a coach who clearly has some secret Norris Weese syndrome; some love and wonderment for a backup who seems to have IT, but never really got a chance to show IT because of whatever reason backups like to use.

Is Jordan Taylor making us need a 6th receiver and one less QB?

For now, the guys that would usually be out in front are out of the way, and the only thing keeping Trevor Siemian from getting a chance to show he can lead this championship defense to another one is our collective anxiety of going into a regular season with two inexperienced quarterbacks, and that's it.

Keeping two QB's and cutting Sanchez might make room for a 6th receiver, a spot Jordan Taylor will need opened if he hopes to be the next great white receiver from Denver.

Kubiak has lauded the ability of Siemian for some time now, especially on the day that he had to explain why we needed Sanchez in the first place.

Kubiak might have named Siemian the starter when we first lost Osweiler if there had already been a book on him to go with.  He is now attempting to help Siemian write a book that Broncos fans will respect and believe in enough to stick with him until Lynch can't be held down anymore. Siemian is nursing a shoulder ding that he took while trying to stop the pick 6 that he threw against San Francisco, yet his coach has named him as the starter, not knowing if he'll even be healthy enough to play? That's all you need to know to understand that the coach has a soft spot for backups like he was.

Kubiak entered the league the exact same year that Elway did and served as his backup for 9 years in Denver. He compiled a 3-2 record in spot starter duty, and had 14 touchdowns with 16 interceptions and 1,920 yards passing. There is no easy way to say, one way or the other, what type of player Kub's would have been if given the chance because history doesn't work that way. Sanchez on the other hand has had chances more than once and seems capable at times but extremely bad at other moments.

We've seen some of his worst play in recent years (YouTube the worse if you have not), but none of it has really happened while in Denver yet.  Although we all want to hold him to account for the interception and the fumbles that happened in the first two preseason games, no one wants to hold the coach to account for not running the ball more than he passed it, like we expect he will do in the regular season.

If we want to be perfectly honest, who in the entire western hemisphere doesn't realize that Peyton Manning has retired, and the Broncos are searching for their next quarterback?

Does this guy look like he has IT, or is he more ordinary
like Kyle Orton? Is ordinary good enough for this team?

Clearly, every defensive coordinator in the league knows this, so the expectation of too many hand off's would contradict the types of things you're looking to evaluate when evaluating quarterbacks: things like throwing accuracy and pocket awareness.

Sanchez is fairly good with accuracy but pretty crappy with pocket awareness.  Running the ball a lot more will help this, but he may never get to that luxury if he can't show us how he'll react when things are off schedule; when defenses are defending us like the defending champion we are.

Siemian may not have the IT factor that wows your senses, but he does have some special stuff that makes you feel Gary Kubiak warm, or Norris Weese kind of comfortable. Without a doubt, he has the quiet hopes of the coach that, with opportunity and growth, he might do no worse than what Manning and Osweiler did last year.

Better yet, he'd like him to do just a little bit better than Manning and Osweiler did last year if he can. Kubiak's search is for someone that can keep it close enough for our defense to make plays by limiting turnovers.

I expect Siemian to get a real shot this year in part because of the backup syndrome of our head coach who has already named Siemian a starter this week even though he is not fully healthy from the hit he took. Kubiak might have squelched the questions of who will get the benefit of game 3 game planning and minutes, but he is also signaling to the entire league who he hopes will win the first game of regular season job by giving that player the inside track to prove himself Kubiak or Weese like.

I am still hopeful that Kubiak, and Broncos fans, give Sanchez a fair chance to show how he would run THIS offense and not some distorted tryout version of our offense that allows defensive opponents to not play honest.

Not that I think Sanchez offers us any real hope for victory. His reliably marginal play behind our reliably stringent defense could actually serve as a functional bridge for Siemian to be our new Norris Weese, wanted and supported by fans for several games, buying time for Lynch- the guy with IT- to get ready to take us to that next level.

Conversely, if you make Siemian the immediate starter, moving to Sanchez in the hopes of him being something dramatically better or different than his history, would be foolish to expect and hard to sell to fans without severe skepticism. Sanchez's only real value to this team is to be thrown to the wolves; to serve as a bridge to Siemian and then Lynch, which means Sanchez plays as long as we are winning. Siemian must equally serve as a bridge to Lynch who must NOT be given the job but must win the job in practice. Lynch must be given enough time to learn his role without getting shell shocked and ruined by NFL edge rushers while learning.

Not that players with IT ever experience that kind of shell shock, but they do experience injury when placed in the wrong NFL situation.

Will being a career coach /backup QB help Kub's
or cause him to have a soft spot for the wrong guy?

Unless Sanchez does something we've never seen him consistently do, and balls out like he's auditioning for his next team (which he is), Siemian is being given the first chance to also ball out and keep the rookie from seeing the field this year if he so desires.

Either way, this season promises to be another serious display of Denver's coaches making the most of whatever hand they are dealt and still yielding championship performance. We'll need a lot of luck to shine on this team and end an eery turnover trend that's been happening for over a year now.

If the Broncos are truly lucky enough to actually win another title- with butt fumble or a backup QB no less- this one will be for Kubiak the coach and for Kubiak, the clip board carrying, lifelong backup quarterback. 

And for Norris Weese.

Peyton Manning's DNA, Tainting Preseason Practice

It's that time again Denver Broncos fans.
Putting on my thinking cap for the coming season. 

I just don't really know how to get across to some of my Broncos fans how much Peyton Manning will remain in our DNA for years to come.

I understand the impact of his legacy on the NFL and how that might have played a role in the way things played out at the end. If Broncos haters want to call my team lucky because it all worked out in the end, I was of the mindset to agree with them as I look from the sideline at our coaches try to "do it again" for the lack of a better description.

Again is a bit of a reach. Neither Mark Sanchez, Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch are expected to have the mind of Peyton after so many years of experience that he had and they don't.

Actually, that is exactly what they're kinda being asked and I can show you how and why.

If Broncos Coach, Gary Kubiak, was truly beholden to his own system as being something even remotely special, why would he replace a HIGHLY successful coach in John Fox- with an unspoken mandate to do better than Fox did, and quickly because Peyton is on his way out- but relent to Manning's system just like Fox did?

We have to accept that the hybrid model that developed out of last year was not something Kubiak had any way of expecting to work.  He might have expected his ability to inspire people to have some value, but he is a play caller just like Manning, and his play calling had to constantly give way to fake defensive looks and Manning being so easily baited into audibles by them.

The result?

An epic number of interceptions that horrified the ball control coach to the extent of shutting down his Hall of Fame QB in the 4th quarter of the Superbowl from throwing in the red zone.  By the end, Kubiak no longer trusted Manning to not turn the ball over, nor did we.

Enter the new year, and the quarterbacks are mostly brand new except for one who was an internal witness to the ass chewing that Manning often got as a result of so much carelessness with the football- ass chewing that almost had Manning watching Osweiler throughout his final Superbowl chase.  Siemian might be in the lead of the QB race in training camp, but that's mostly because he has had a year of understanding what pisses dad off the most and how to avoid doing that list of things.

Things that Sanchez was famous for prior to arriving in Denver.  The hopes must have been that our coaching staff could do things others have not been able to achieve with Sanchez, or that he had been out of a job as a starter for long enough to learn from his mistakes and change his stripes a bit.

Our excellent defense should be expected to make plays from time to time, yet the natural apprehension from a guy with a tainted history is unavoidable.  Sanchez is not Manning, and does not have the resume that would allow you to relax in the face of ball control issues like we tried to do with Manning. We've seen Manning burn defenses over and over and over again, so the expectation of more was never always, even as we crossed the finish line needing cardiac resuscitation.

Now all of that is gone and the only hope we have for resurrecting Manning's magical parts is Siemian who saw it or Kubiak who taught it.

In a recent practice, one in which the offense had seen enough days of havoc from our vaunted defense, the head coach decided to switch out the names of some plays so that the defense could not keep jumping the routes.

The result?

The defense was burned over and over and over again. In fact, one burn never got to happen because Chris Harris Jr. reached out and grabbed Emmanuel Sanders to avoid the embarrassment.

The result?

A rather big fight that caused both players to be sent to the showers and a whole lot of media types to question who was mostly in the wrong on this one, Harris Jr. or Sanders.  My first thought was to side with the media that saw Sanders respond in a way that was a bit demonstrative considering Harris Jr. is a teammate. In deeper thought, Harris Jr. was burned in practice from the Peyton Manning switch up, the same as some of his other teammates had been burned before him, but he chose to respond in a way that could have injured Sanders if you think about it.

There really was nothing to be gained from grabbing your own teammate except the avoidance of embarrassment. Embarrassment that probably never would have happened  so naturally if Coach Kubiak had not spent time with Peyton.

The adjustment was a Peyton adjustment, bottom line. So is the trend that is developing of players staying later for more work after the coaches have already released them from practice for the day.  At first it was only Demarius Thomas and some injured guys.  Soon Sanders joined as did a flock of other seagulls. Now, the stay late's are a bit staggering in numbers.

That is all Manning, pure and simple.

Even the fact that Sanchez is being derided for making interceptions in practice, while Siemian is being asked to take chances- or burn them like Peyton would, versus stay with the safe check down pass and hand off audibles (the Kubiak offense) that keep the turnovers at a minimum- is all Manning's fault.

Sadly, Sanchez is not only going to be a victim of his own poor history with turnovers, he is going to be a victim of the unquenchable feeling of luck that a few Cowboys fans I know, and Gary Kubiak, will never shake after winning it all despite so many damn turnovers.

...and Manning. Sanchez is an indirect victim of Manning's blood mixed up inside of ours. We would have never won without Manning. Yes, he is like Sea Salt to Kubiak's Mrs. Dash, and the Superbowl game probably got over salted some as it relates to whose ingredients got used the most. Manning is now a necessary ingredient- in moderation- and one you don't easily dismiss after trying it out for a while.

Sanchez, Siemian, Kubiak, Elway and everyone who calls themselves a Bronco, will carry the DNA of Manning in our system simply because we actually won directly from that sprinkle of whatever it is that he does.  If the Elway way or the Mile High Salute teams could be revived exactly as they were originally comprised, Kubiak would not have been fired in Houston and would not have acquiesced to Manning when coming here to replace Fox.

We won just as much because of Manning as we did in spite of him Broncos fans. Nothing is really going to take that infusion of salt out of our necessary ingredients for another crown.  Our team was partially crafted by the success of the Seattle Seahawks who gave us the pain and focus from our 5th loss in the final game of the year. Similarly, future teams will be crafted by the ground control, killer defense approach that won our title last year.  None of those teams who witnessed our success last year, will erase the feeling of fear caused by an aged and slightly injured quarterback, that still made defenses play perfect, or else.

Teams don't fear the Broncos this year because they don't have any reason- except our defense- which can only produce so many points in a game and probably can't duplicate last year's timely miracles, over and over and over again.

You know who agrees with them the most?

Kubiak, which is evidenced this preseason in each of his quarterbacks looking to sprinkle a dash of Manning on the situation where possible- to spice things up- versus repeating ground and pound mastery as was common to the Kubiak way that we all used to know.

After winning with Manning, Kubiak will never be the same coach, and that's a good thing.  He will always understand that predictability of the legendary teams is only moot when you can actually win one on one battles at every position on the field, which isn't easy against Khalil Mack.  That generation of smash mouth football "NO MATTER WHAT" existed long enough to have a reasonable counter approach.  Solid man defense if you have the talent, or 8 in the box if you don't and dare Sanchez, Siemian or even old man Manning to beat you with his arm- over and over and over again.

Call It The Maniak Offense

What we won with last year was a genuine amalgamation of two great NFL minds. That kind of stuff doesn't shake itself off when the new year comes around, or stay quiet when you need to prepare for a new season to top the last one. Inevitably, Kubiak had to ask himself why- as a coach- did HIS system never work all by itself?  What role did Manning truly play in making Kubiak a championship coach finally?

Whether he came here and pre-planned this conversion with himself or not, Kubiak is now a caretaker of the book of Manning as it relates to the work ethic of the team leaders, the attention to detail of the entire team. But mostly he is now a lead disciple of run, run, run, Omaha, run, Omaha.

....or whatever the audible name's are for today.

You see, Manning was more than just famous for extra film study. Plenty of players do plenty of that. What set Manning apart from other quarterbacks was his diligence to study himself.  To search out his own flaws and to listen to his calls that were captured on tape just to determine if it was necessary to change the name of the call so that other teams had no keys on him.

Manning would do exactly what Kubiak did the other day that caused the now famous fight between Harris Jr. and Sanders.

I won't blasphemously call Manning Jesus or anything that edgy, but his career will be like the reading of a new doctrine, one that will be studied for years to come and one that someone will eventually have the audacity to try and duplicate in some shape or fashion.

The greatest likelihood is that player will come from Denver seeing as how we were so fortunate to successfully experience the final days of Manning's ministry first hand.

From several tell tell signs in Broncos training camp, his ministry lives on.
 

Our Crazy Uncle Seems Totally Afraid To Win

"She really thought I didn't mind that crying baby"

What isn't hard to understand is the love and understanding that we all have for that crazy uncle in our family.  You know who I am talking about because every family seems to have THAT uncle.

Call him Uncle Donald if you will.

He's that uncle who always seems to say something to infuriate somebody, if not everybody at the same time, though some in the family know how to let him have his way and not poke the bear by trying to censor him.

Usually, our crazy Uncle Donald is aided by a fair amount of liquor to increase the audacity of his offensiveness, but he is perfectly capable of pissing off many, with or without liquor. The liquor is usually just an easy excuse for the kind of stuff they do all of the time anyway, but it also gives us something to excuse him for, until the next time.

After all, crazy Uncle Donald is family, and there really is no way to totally disassociate yourself from family....is there?

It was way back in 1989, with Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. campaigning mightily to stop the impending State legislature pursuit in Louisiana of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.  That was the only other time in which a party attempted to oust one of it's own nominee's. It didn't work and Duke won that seat.
(http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/white-supremacists-feel-inspired-trumps-2016-campaign)

THE LESSON?

Sometimes when you DON'T stand up against your unruly family members, they'll only get more unruly and eventually take over the whole party.

Two years later, however, republicans learned their lesson when Duke attempted to win the Governors seat in Louisiana, but was unsuccessful due to a strong stand of resistance from members of his own party.

David Duke is nothing like crazy Uncle Donald. He is our slick Uncle Duke who is rhetorically capable of convincing you of just about anything with his gift of gab and immense intellectual capacity.  As a black political editorial writer who researches constantly, I have to watch carefully to the amount of time I spend listening to David Duke because he can totally focus on elements that you'll agree with him about, and never reveal the other elements of his intolerant self that resides at the core of his being.

Those who keep up with such things know that our racist Uncle Duke rarely talks about blacks anymore, but is an intense skeptic about the pervasive influence of Jewish money in American life in addition to the 8 billion dollar welfare payment we send to Israel even while Netanyahu spits in the face of our president. Uncle Duke and I do not disagree on this bone of contention, yet he loses me on the race purity mission that elevated him to Grand Wizard. Though he has abandoned the sheet and the hood, what became of all of that hatred?

Whether he continues to espouse such hatred and extremes or not, is a risk that Louisiana voters refused to trust again, as Duke has run for many political offices in Louisiana and beyond, but never won another seat after winning the state legislature seat in 1989.

Louisiana voters, and its republican party, have rejected his form of hatred and turned him into a fringe lunatic lost in the extremes of politics and academia until revived by his recent endorsement of our crazy Uncle Donald.

Although much more lucid a thinker and talented as a orator, Uncle Duke was denounced for turning back the clock on race relations in America. In a crazy bit of political irony, Uncle Donald, far from full fledged denunciation, is FINALLY being seen as the sincere threat to the future of the GOP that he has always been from the moment he claimed the label, and a sincere threat to the reputation of those who continue to love and support him too, much like our crazy Uncle who no one knows how to functionally separate themselves from.

The fact that the GOP is talking about some form of nominee switching intervention is good but sad when you think about the damage they have accepted by waiting so long.  At this point in the conversation, it's hard to know if they will be more damaged with a Trump victory and a path or plan that could be so progressive even Obama will wish he voted for him, or if he and Republicans lose once again and fight with presidential defeat depression while searching for the motivation to  redefine their identity by capturing some of these millions of now bewildered voters.

Hillary has a delicate line to walk on as she seeks to secure enough bewildered voters herself to win the electoral map and the presidency. No race against an opponent so immensely flawed should ever be this darn close, but it is because no one really likes Hillary that much either. At this point in the process, she'll never extend her favorabilities to even that of Mitt Romney, who must be chomping at the bit to defy his families wishes and save the country from Trump by being the secondary option of this GOP intervention plan.

The voters that Clinton must pursue are those particular family members who hate Uncle Donald's crap and might choose to spend more time at the reunion with lying Aunt Hillary- who is only hard to believe, versus crazy Uncle Donald who lies and attacks everybody in sight- but only if you make them choose between the two.

In this election, making people choose between these two is exactly what WE must do.  I say WE because Hillary will insult the voter's she needs while blaming our crazy Uncle on their support of him.  She must continue to treat him in the only way that he understands- with ridicule. Rational debate has little value with crazy Donald. With that insecure Uncle of ours, there is actually nothing better than a little name calling to piss him off and take him off his game. Trump can't focus on the issues while defending himself from name calling or angry Gold Star families. Clarifying his existence in this race by calling him crazy Uncle Donald would achieve a very intentional, two-fold purpose.

While Hillary points out how insidious it is to give our crazy Uncle the most powerful job in the world, WE must keep informing our friends and family that THEY are the reason that he is still sticking around.  Donald is showing as many signs of wanting out as that tomato can boxer who needs to last four rounds to insure he gets paid.  Trump is well past that four round threshold and more likely to lose money and power if this keeps up much longer. If he had hired a trusted corner man, he would have fired him already for not throwing in the towel on this thing.

The only person more shocked that you crazy voters still love the crazy uncle is Trump, because he probably never got involved to actually become president.  The reason why he's running will be a secret to history or one hell of a book if he has the courage to reveal the art of this deal he made with the devil, Hillary, or someone really mad at the GOP.

It's not out of the realm of understanding for our crazy Uncle to be up on a soap box trying to convince us that he is the most talented and brilliant of us all. That is what he does at every party.

The reasons why he still has people supporting him is the reason why I am writing today.

Hitler's rise came absent the balanced informational obstruction of the Internet.  Trump is not so lucky.  If you need to know more about what he is all about, the evidence reads like a clear and present danger.  He is a self serving business man with no evidence of being benevolent or particularly good in business because he refuses to release the only proof of such things, his tax return, calling them all "under audit". In the absence of the only resume that a business man can offer for US to review, let US review the details that are available to us.

Every time I take the time out to complain about the pain in the arse we call Trump, I find myself unable to do so without some element of praise that he deserves too.

He deserves the credit for demonstrating political dominance without financially dominating the process too.  He deserves credit for exposing a delegate system that we had little functional knowledge about.  If the electors in half of the United States go rogue, as the Constitution allows, he might soon give an up close and personal look at the electoral college aspect of the two-party hustle, used to maintain the two-party grip on power. He deserves credit for forcing the conversation to happen on several hot button topics that political correctness had previously silenced, and he deserves a lot of real credit for exposing the cracks and flaws in our system of governance including our immense racial and cultural divides that function as wedges to help maintain and expand those exposed cracks in the foundation.

Stated more clearly, he has helped us to see how terribly racist and divided WE actually are.

If his candidacy is reflective of this nation, it is showing that WE are mean, somewhat vile, vain, full of hatred and polarized beyond our ability to even recognize friends and loved ones when examining them through a political lens. This political season has found millions of our friends and family members getting dropped off our social media friends list- assuming they haven't dropped you first.

For a while, both sides had serious reason, other than favorability ratings, to call the two of these candidates equally bad. Trump's former attack of John McCain and so many others after that, wasn't enough to exclude him from presidential consideration, but his recent attacks on babies and Muslim parents of slain war vets while lying about his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, has at least clarified that he is uniquely horrible.

Trump is that crazy Uncle we all have, the one we would never imagine helping to become president. If you don't know how to bail out for pride or embarrassment, you are like those folks on the Titanic who realized the carrier didn't have enough life rafts for everybody, so you stand resolute in the no way out scenario you've found yourself in. What you are doing by standing steadfast in the corner of Trump is surely a grand display of courage and determination as you sink down to your slow, icy death.

Crazy Uncle Donald is not only sinking the boat on his own political race, he is destroying the political reputations and careers of everyone that hitches their wagons to him. Most of those people I politically oppose, so Uncle Donald has done something great for me. As for the voters, voters don't have to reveal their voting booth selections even though FaceBook seems to make us think we have to declare a pledge of allegiance to someone so that someone else isn't presumably winning by default.

In the words of Vice President Joe Biden, that is a bunch of malarkey.  We'll never rid ourselves of two-party rule if we remain convinced that any vote outside of one party is an instant vote for the other.  If there is no reason for me to know who you vote for, there is no reason for me to ask or care who you vote for either.  WE use a secret ballot for a reason.  If any of US are truly interested in Making America Great, finally, insuring over 90% voter participation gets us closer to a majority selection and not just a campaign season survivor. As long as voter participation remains stuck at numbers barely over 50% of the population, financial influence can, and does, win an election every time.

Hillary can do herself a ton  of supporters and  loads of Super PAC money a lot of good by championing the reforms (campaign finance, immigration) that Trump has brought to light. But don't get it twisted. Our distrust of Hillary is real, and nothing will instantly convince US that she will fulfill her campaign promises or fulfill that progressive platform after getting elected.  So, instead of blowing a bunch of presumed hot air full of political promises that no one really believes, Hillary must keep dishing the ice on the hot rhetoric of crazy Uncle Donald to help expose him as the crazy Uncle that we all know him as.

If you are still in his corner, you are doing a loyal and honorable thing as a member of America's family, but a horrendous thing for the future of this nation. Nobody is telling you not to love him and keep inviting him to the party.  Just don't make him our president.