The Worst

 

 

I know I speak for all Americans when I say we live in the best country in the world but have the worst people who want to lead it.

I'm enough of a history student (and have lived through plenty of it) to admit this has been a complaint every four years.  Still, this year ranks right up there with Pierce versus Scott. (Pierce won.)

The Republicans renominated for the third time, Donald Trump.

Donald Trump didn't deserve to be nominated the first time, must less a third time.  But as they say on ESPN, it is what it is. 

Now, the pros and cons of Donald Trump have been discussed and debated ad nauseam (Latin for "a lot") for eight years.  We know what he is good at (his "brand," whatever that is) and staking out a position on something that you do not understand what he is saying.

He has this tendency to muddy up the waters on an issue because he really can't explain his position. This has something to do with his ability to play 4-D Chess.

Take, for example, the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.  Trump latched on to a story about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats ( or, as he said, "doogs") instead of getting to the real problem of the 20,000 Haitians arriving since 2020 to a town of 60,000 that did not have per-existing Haitian population. 

That's a lot of people a small Midwestern town is expected to absorb. On the bright side, if you can speak fluent Creole French, I think I know where you can get a job.

Trump could have made a compelling argument about immigration. Instead, he sounded like a Yahoo.

On top of this, Trump is spending his campaign time selling coins and watches.

Can you imagine John Kennedy in a commercial in 1960? "It is time for a new generation, and you can get the time on your new John F. Kennedy watch by Timex." 

After the first assassination attempt, Trump had an opportunity to present a new Trump- a Trump that isn't so Nutsy Fagen.

That lasted about 30 minutes into his acceptance speech.  He spent the rest of the 90-minute speech giving the crowd his greatest hits like he was REO Speedwagon ("Heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who.")

The other side is not any better.  After it became apparent that President McGoo had no idea what year it was, the Democrats got Nancy Pelosi and Former President Obama to muscle the President out of running for his renomination.

To keep things smooth, everyone agreed that Vice President Harris should be the nominee because, well, shut up.

The problem is the idea of President Harris might look good on paper, but then she opens her mouth. What comes out is as confusing as Trump and contradicts what she said in 2019. (Not that it is a bad thing to contradict what she said in 2019 because most of it was loopy.)

In 2019, she ran as a super Progressive. This time, she is running as a "moderate," which means she owns a gun.

She was on TV a lot in 2019. I never heard a word about growing up middle class or working at McDonald's (she says she worked on the fries). 

She talks about falling out of coconut trees and looking at the economy "holistically".

"Madame Vice President, what are you going to do about the economy?"

"Growing up middle class, I learned Piggly Wiggly would gouge customers and I promise not to let Piggly Wiggly do it again."

Her big plan is not to let grocery stores gouge their customers.  What?  When did grocery stores gouge customers?  During the pandemic?  

But one thing both candidates have in common.  Neither one knows how to think.

Trump is all reaction. He doesn't sit around and think.  He sits around and stews. 

Harris can't provide detail or explain why she has transformed from a San Francisco progressive to Middle Class Mom in five years. Could it be she was just saying what she had to in order to get in good with the cool kids at the cool table?

Trump is for no income tax on tips because, he sat around, and thought why not?  Harris selected Tim Walz as a running mate because the Mean Girls in the Democratic Party aren't thrilled with Israel. 

The bottom line this year is the old Woody Allen quote: "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."