We went to a diner after church this morning. She raised her eyebrows out of curiosity after the very fussy way I ordered my lunch. I told her that I am doing the Paleo diet, and explained that I cannot eat sugar, grains, legumes, or dairy products, and that I had to be careful about what ingredients were used in the preparation of my meal. She asked what got me started on this. I told her that I had seen Jeb Bush on Jimmy Fallon's show a little over 2 months ago, and that one of the topics that came up was the fact that he was on the Paleo diet and had lost 35 lbs. I told her that while I have always sort of liked Jeb, that you could put a roll of thousand dollar bills on a plate in front of me, and a gun to my head, and tell me that either I take the money and vote for Jeb, or you pull the trigger. . . and that my answer would be, please call my children and tell them that I love them very much. Then the conversation changed dramatically.
Apparently being taken aback by my resolve, she asked: "But what if it came down to a choice between Jeb and Trump?". I said: "I cannot even answer that question. There is no one running for the Republican Presidential nomination who is fit to be President." She then said that if it were between those two, that she thought that Jeb would be better. She is highly intelligent, voted for Obama both times, but just has been swamped with her single mom duties as well as a full-time job, and therefore had missed some pertinent details of the current political climate. I explained that Jeb Bush has famously said that his brother 'kept us safe' (which is true if you just ignore that one little tragedy). Also, he has sought out many of the same 'masterminds' of W's foreign policy apparatus as advisors - something that cannot possibly end well. Then I brought up the Supreme Court, the fact that the next President is likely to have the honor and duty of nominating 3 justices, and that even one more radical, ultra corporate-friendly, legislate-from-the-bench Justice like Scalia, Roberts or Thomas, would sink our nation for a generation or more, and that is what we would get with any Republican.
Her point was that Trump was so objectionable and unsavory as a potential POTUS, that she was willing to look around for the lesser evil. I then went on to say that I find him entertaining, and I was glad that he was going against the status quo. . . that his outrageous behavior was exposing all of the Mr/Mrs RNC America pageant contestants as unworthy lightweights. But to be clear, I said, Trump is xenophobic, racist and through and through not Presidential material.
She said she wasn't fond of Hillary, didn't know much about Bernie. So I told her most of his major positions, told her about the speech at Liberty University. As I elaborated, she asked if I thought he could win. I said that about 2 months ago, I would have said it was a very long shot. However, today I absolutely believe he can win. I said that after two Presidential elections where I voted for the first African American President, I thought it would be so cool to follow that up by casting a vote for the first woman President. However, I am now convinced that Hillary has little or no chance of growing her support, despite her super delegates, Wall Street backing, and the linked funding and full support of the DNC. Voters have had many years to decide how they feel about her, and few if any are going to budge. Bernie on the other hand, has had a steadily growing surge of support which shows no signs of letting up. He is not only connecting with progressive voters, but with new voters, stay-at-home-last-time voters, and will in all probability attract a lot of moderate Republican voters who have finally figured out that they have been lied to and hornswaggled into voting against their best economic interest. As I see it, Bernie, not Hillary, is the most electable of the Democratic Presidential candidates.
Back to my lunch. . . the only reason we had that discussion comparing Jeb and Trump, was because Debbie Wasserman Schultz has ordered the Democratic Party to stand down. She is sending emails pushing the idea of watching the Republican debates as though that is part of her strategy to win. Considering what a disaster her strategy to win was in 2014, I think that it would be wise to allow some second guessing here. The narrative of Trump vs. Bush vs. Fiorina, and who is the lesser evil is what people are discussing because that it all that is being broadcast on TV and therefore discussed and mulled over by even my dear friend. This is outrageous! If there had been even one Democratic debate in the same period as the two Republican debates, reasonable folks would not be comparing Trump to Bush, they would be comparing Hillary to Bernie, Hillary to Martin, Bernie to Trump, Bernie to every clown on the RNC stage. This is known as framing the discussion (thanks George Lakoff). We have ceded the discussion. We have allowed the frame to be created that the less outrageous Republicans are likely better than Trump. The thing that really galls me is that Republicans ought to be sitting around at lunch after church talking about how much they were impressed by Bernie Sanders on TV last night in the Democratic debate. But that isn't happening because of one person - Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She is intransigent, and refuses to listen to or respect the wishes of the other members of the DNC or its vice chairs. I will give her credit for being stubborn and actually having a strategy.
President Obama can replace her, and should. Write or call him.
Sign the White House petition (lost the link - someone will provide below).
Contact the DNC and let them know that you believe we should have more debates and a release of the exclusivity clause ( they probably don't care, but call them anyway).
Contact your Congressional Representative, if he or she is a Dem.
Write to your local newspaper.
DWS has to go.