Rump: Couldn't The Republicans Come Up With Somebody Better Than This?

By Manifesto Joe

One thing I've learned in 60-plus years on this planet is that political ideology is not the measure of a person. As a veteran blogger, I've personally known right-wingers who are stand-up folks, and lefties who aren't worth their own shit. And trying to change someone's mind on politics is like trying to change their religion. It tends to be a cognitive thing that one learns from one's parents or other authority figures. Even when it contradicts one's life lessons, you see people cling to those beliefs.

I tend to avoid judging people by ideology, or by religion, because such beliefs are often not the barometer by which to judge. And as a student of history, I have seen that people with whom one disagrees can turn out to be great world leaders. Winston Churchill comes to mind. He was widely regarded in 1920s Britain as the Rush Limbaugh of his time, a right-wing pundit with no hope of liberal redemption. In the late 1930s he stepped up to the plate, and is now rightly regarded as a great statesman.

But Donald Trump?

No f-----g way.

I've tried very hard to give this man the benefit of the doubt, but there can be little doubt now. He's determined to elevate pond scum like Steve Bannon to exalted heights; and even after his campaign rhetoric about "draining the swamp," he's surrounded himself with bottom feeders like Rudy Guiliani and Newt Gingrich. His faux populism has proved to be just that -- bullshit to get Bubba to vote for him.

He may yet surprise me, but I sincerely doubt it. Yes, Hillary Clinton would likely have proved to be just more of the same. But this election's outcome could actually ruin the Republican Party, which is an institution America needs as a legitimate center-right destination.

The Republican Party had 16 other possibilities for their presidential nominee, and Rump (sorry, I keep calling him that) laid waste to each and every one of them in the GOP primaries. Couldn't a venerable institution like that have come up with someone better?

I sincerely hope he proves me wrong, but I doubt it. The "transition" already looks like a debacle. I fear that the American people have been conned by a master con artist. Stay tuned.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.