It seems that in every presidential election cycle, we hear some version of this: “This is the most important election of our lifetime.” It is usually the establishment characters of the two major parties who make this claim. Unfortunately, some naively believe it.
I don’t want to say that it absolutely doesn’t matter who is elected president, but it is not nearly as significant as what most would like to believe. One way I can equally irritate Republicans and Democrats alike is by pointing out that Obama is mostly a continuation of Bush.
We are supposed to get excited about the presidential race so that we are under the illusion that we are in control. We are in control, but not because we are voting. As long as people consent to the government taking care of them, then we aren’t in control. We are only in control (in a collectivist sense) because we can deny this consent at any time.
We are told that we should exercise our right to vote. But we are supposed to vote for a Bush or a Clinton or one of the other vetted candidates. If you vote for Trump, or someone such as Ron Paul, then you don’t know what you are doing and you should allow the elitists to choose for you.
While electing a new president probably doesn’t make much of a difference, it can be a reflection of public opinion. That is one of the reasons I am paying such close attention, especially to this election cycle. It is obvious that people are simply dissatisfied with the status quo. Or perhaps more accurately, they are downright mad at the situation.
People have a right to be mad. They are struggling to get by as their wages do not keep up with the prices of basic goods and services. And while they can’t necessarily articulate the problem, they understand that they are getting swindled, while the big players are getting taken care of. And some of the rich people really are getting rich off of the backs of others because they are getting bailouts and other special favors from the politicians and central bankers. They are not rich because they are satisfying consumer demand in a voluntary market.
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have identified a major problem, which is a start. It is better than any of the others did. And while most of their solutions are wrong, especially when it comes to economics, at least they are acknowledging that people are struggling.
As I write this, Donald Trump just won Florida and is likely to win the rest of the primaries on this Tuesday except for Ohio. John Kasich will win Ohio. While Trump is still not getting above 50% in most states, he is still dominating the Republican primaries.
At this point, it looks like it will be Donald vs. Hillary. But I can’t help but think it is not over yet.
On the Republican side, the establishment absolutely despises Trump. He cannot be easily bought and he questions the U.S. empire overseas. The establishment is still going to try to get rid of Trump, but it is looking more difficult to do so at the convention. If he is right around having 50% of the delegates and they still try to stop his nomination, it won’t look good. I think they will find other ways.
I have already discussed my fear for Trump that there will be an attempt to assassinate him. But even with that, the insiders probably don’t want to overplay their hand. If that were to happen, it would set his supporters on fire, who are already supporting Trump as a vote against the establishment.
I think the most likely scenario is that they try to treat Trump like they did Reagan. Of course, there was an attempt on Reagan’s life, and the alleged shooter was unsurprisingly connected with the Bush family. But the establishment learned to live with Reagan.
The reason is that it was mostly the Bush team that infiltrated the Reagan administration. The establishment probably knew they were fine as soon as Reagan agreed to have Bush as his running mate. Then James Baker and company got in the door.
This is something to watch for with Trump. Who will he choose as his running mate? Who will his most important advisors be? The Republican establishment may decide they can deal with Trump as long as they have some of their people helping to advise him.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton will be the nominee unless we see an indictment. While I wouldn’t bet on an indictment, I give it a much greater chance than I would have just a few months ago.
What will happen if the FBI issues an indictment just before the convention? Or what happens if an indictment is issued just after the convention? She may need to get elected just to essentially pardon herself and avoid prison time.
I think the Clintons and the Democrats absolutely fear Trump. He is a loose cannon. Is he going to say anything about Bill the rapist? Is he going to bring up Vince Foster or any of the number of Clinton associates who ended up dead? This could be really interesting.
I don’t know if Trump will be any good in scaling back U.S. intervention overseas. Maybe he will be a total disaster as president. But he sure is making things interesting and entertaining.