Jeb Bush Has that Deer-in-the-Headlights Look
/Jeb Bush, and for that matter, the Republican Party establishment has the deer-in-the-headlights look over the current status of the 2016 Presidential Primary race. Pundits in the know thought that it was going to be a Bush-Clinton matchup once all the dust was settled in the primary process. But something funny happened on the way to the coronation. They forgot to consult the cranky republican voters for their opinion of how unsuccessful the Republican Party has been in preventing the leftward movement of the country. The conservative voters have been suffering through a steady progression to the left for decades, which has accelerated rapidly during the Obama administration.
I used to think that Jimmy Carter was the worst president in my lifetime. However, if you have to endure a left-wing president, you could only hope that he would be as ineffective as Jimmy Carter. On the other hand Obama is bright, articulate (when he reads from the teleprompter) and dangerous. As a worshipper of Saul Alinsky and his "Rules for Radicals" he learned how to sell snake oil to the underclass to manipulate them to his advantage. The promises of free money to the career welfare recipients (thanks to Lyndon Johnson and his Great Welfare Society) and blame their problems on the "rich guy" insures a bloc of votes for the democrats. The black ghettos have shown to vote for the democratic candidate about 95% of the time. The modern form of slavery.
Conservative republicans are hungry for someone to take on political correctness head-on even if it bruises some feelings in the process. Donald Trump fills that bill. He is unconventional, to say the least. He has soared in the polls, and followed somewhat closely by Ted Cruz as the alternative to the "go along to get along" moderate republicans that have enabled the liberals to press their agenda. Ted Cruz is the classical conservative, with excellent debating skills and doesn't even require a teleprompter to speak eloquently. His attack on the PC crowd, however, is more subdued than Trumps.
The Democratic Party has problems of their own. The establishment candidate is clearly Hillary, that was supposed to have token opposition on the way to the nomination. Enter Bernie "The Mad Scientist" Sanders who is giving Hillary a run for her money (literally). The Democratic Party debates are almost a comedy routine of who can offer the most free stuff to the electorate in exchange for their votes. First it is free college education, then it moves on to free child care, then it is mandated paid family leave and free health insurance for all. What is next? Your employer will be required to make your mortgage payment, free cigarettes, booze and tattoos? If it wasn't so serious it would be a great laugh. Is there any surprise that the main-stream media isn't critical of their outrageous fiscal irresponsibility or the lack of Saturday Night Live routines to satirize this stupidity?
The bottom line is that the Republican Party and Democratic Party are moving farther and farther apart. We are the Divided States of America. Currently it is a battle for the voters that don't identify with either party. This seems to be made up of people that are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, or vice versa, along with the low-information-voter who really pays no attention to politics and has no idea of even who their Congressman is. It is possible that it will leave a void in the middle for an independent party. The question would then be whether the independent party steals more votes from the Republican or Democratic Party.
In recent history, it has been a contest of candidates that are willing to change their position on issues to endear themselves with voter blocs. They form focus groups who will tell them what their positions on the issues should be. It is refreshing to have candidates outside the mainstream that will actually take a position based upon their honest convictions and let the chips fall as they may.
