As much as I like to snark and mock and gripe about Republicans - all of 'em, Katie! - I think we need to stop calling the 2016 field of Republican presidential candidates a "
clown car."
No - not because it's insulting to clowns.
If you're interested in my reasoning, head below the saffron squiggle!
It's simple, really.
For openers - c'mon. Grown people calling each other names like "clown?" It's not polite, it's not dignified, and all it's going to do is polarize us even further. As if we needed that.
I can effectively criticize the 2016 Republican presidential field six ways from Sunday without resorting to petty name-calling. So can you, I'm sure.
Next, let's think about what makes a clown car a clown car.
1) There are clowns in it. (Duh.)
2) There are waaaay too MANY clowns in it! Comically over-stuffed, a clown car belches forth clown after clown after clown after clown.
Yes, there are a lot of Republicans running for president in 2016 - but to call them a clown car of candidates is to suggest that there are too many people running. It was probably a pithy, cute phrase the first time someone used it. Now that it's caught fire and is virtually EVERYWHERE, it's beginning to grate.
No, there are not too many people running for the GOP nomination in 2016. If anything, there are too few Democrats running!
At the same time that the media has picked up the "clown car" meme, they're warning that the race will come down to Jeb! vs Hillary - and squawking about "dynasty" (as if an unrelated spouse of a former president a "dynasty" makes, but I digress...) and "yet another Bush vs Clinton" presidential race.
Don't want another Bush vs Clinton race? Then be happy that there are a lot of folks running for the GOP nomination. And maybe get out and campaign for Bernie "Pretty Darned Green" Sanders. I'm just sayin'.