Tonight we should know who won the Oregon and Kentucky Democratic primaries. Being in the Portland area I assumed Oregon would be an easy win for Bernie, now polls are saying Hillary could win.
Although an article in Politico is subtitled “Clinton supporters wonder when pain will end” there are many Democrats like me who didn’t feel strongly about whether Bernie or Hillary was the nominee, and who want us all to get busy healing wounds of the primary battle and get on with the mission of defeating Trump.
These wounds continue to be inflicted as what happened Saturday proves:
We can’t have any further incidents like what happened prior to, and on Saturday in the Nevada Democratic caucus where the headlines using words like upheaval and chaos to describe chair throwing by Bernie supporters, and threatening voice mail messages to the party chair.
The Nevada Democratic Party shuttered its offices for security reasons Monday and wrote a letter to the Democratic National Committee accusing supporters of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of having a "penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior — indeed, actual violence — in place of democratic conduct in a convention setting." The party's lawyer, Bradley S. Schrager, said that Sanders supporters may use similar tactics at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.
In the days prior, supporters of the Vermont senator were accused of throwing chairs and making death threats against Nevada Democratic Party chairwoman Roberta Lange. They contended that the party leadership rigged the results of the convention, which locked in seven more delegates who pledged to support Hillary Clinton, compared with the five Sanders gained. The raucous affair ended Saturday night when security at the Paris Las Vegas casino said they could no longer ensure an orderly event.
An article today in The Hill, "Five things to watch for in the Tuesday primaries" makes an important point:
What tone will Sanders strike? As the Sanders campaign remains publicly bullish, the bigger question centers on whether the Democratic Party will be able to pick up the pieces after a divisive race.
With less than a month to go in primary season, the rhetoric Sanders chooses for his reaction to Tuesday’s results will be telling.
Exit polls from West Virginia found that about a third of Sanders voters said they would back Trump over Clinton in a general election, so the party’s fate could rest on the tone Sanders sets: either marshaling his supporters to Clinton or digging in for a longer fight.
Sanders continues to launch critiques of Clinton meant to pin her as a moderate in progressive clothing on the stump, but he has also tried to temper those calls with others aimed at Trump and Republicans at large.
He has shown no indication he plans to back off even if he has a disappointing showing on Tuesday. But the longer he keeps up the heat, the harder it might be for the party to unify.
All I can think about when it comes to the primary is that it takes away focus from the general election where this is the most important election in my lifetime since Goldwater v. Johnson. I hear everyday Trump supporters interviewed on television. For example, an MSNBC reporter taking a ride with an 18 wheeler truck driver, white and male who explains in simplistic terms why he is 100% in for Trump. Not to be a snob, but let’s face it, many Trump supporters aren’t deep thinkers.
A piece in
Politico today disputes Trump’s claim that he has drawn “millions and millions” of people into the political process.
Despite the fact that I know the demographics support the Democrats (see "
Fundamentally speaking Hillary Won’t Blow It”), I am still anxious.
A Hillary super pac has what should be an effective ad against Trump where several female actresses lip sync to Donald Trump making misogynistic comments about women, and is downright creepy with his remark about dating his own daughter. Trump’s response to this ad was a Tweet that Hillary’s husband was the worst abuser of women in history.
I can’t imagine that this Tweet, which is most likely Trump’s only possible deflection of accusations of his attitudes and behaviors towards women, will balance the scales with reasonable voters. After all, he is talking about Hillary’s husband, and when he accuses her (in classic blame the victim mode) of being an enabler, well, I’m not sure whether the majority of Trump supporters even know what that means.
The subject of Bill’s infidelity and the dynamics of the Clinton marriage would be a subject not only for a blog, but for an entire book.
Meanwhile…. I remain befuddled — or to use a Harry Potter wizarding spell term — stupefied over how 50% of all Americans could be so bigoted and/or stupid to think Trump would make a good president.
