The Grand Old Party's Dirty Old Man

Kissing the Republican Party goodbye
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"And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

 

Donald J. Trump

 

This is unprecedented in American political history. The wheels have come off of the clown car. The elephants have thoroughly and completely imploded. It was bad enough that the Republicans nominated their worst, most reprehensible candidate - EVER - but in addition to that, he seems to have sent the party over the cliff, descending into the murky abyss in a hopeless death spiral. Not only has the GOP lost it's mind and it's moorings, they seem to have lost their purpose: to win at any and all costs. This is the price that the silly bastards and bitches are paying for spending the last half century desperately trying to reach out to the lowest moral, common denominator; the weirder angels of our nature. The candidacy of Donald Trump has proven to be their fatal undoing. Perhaps conservatism has a future. Conservatives - like the poor - will always be with us. The Republican Party, on the other hand, is doomed.

 

I cannot even articulate how much fun all of this is to watch. The right wing freak show (which has always been pretty freaky) has gotten freakier still.

 

Caruso only played a clown
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I'm not going to quote what Donald Trump said in a private conversation from 2005 during a taping of Access Hollywood that was picked up by the microphone he was wearing. The words he used were too vile and sexist - which is something to consider: If a person's words are too profane for my tastes, they must be fairly off color. In fact, The Donald's words were completely disgusting - take my word for it. Trump's defense was that it was "an old recording". Wrong. The voice of the long-dead Enrico Caruso singing Verdi's Il Trovatore in 1906 is an "old recording". The voice of the very-much-alive Donald Trump (from even eleven years ago) is very new indeed. And don't try to dismiss this as "innocent locker-room banter". I would like to believe that most men don't talk in that manner - I don't. I have never, in my life, made reference to trying to "fuck" a woman. I've got a bit more style than that. And please bear in mind that when he made these remarks, he was not some slightly goofy, seventeen-year-old high school senior. He was about two years older than I am now. Context is everything.

When this barrage of audio pornography was unveiled to a, by now, thoroughly suspecting public, Donald made what is as close to an apology as we will ever come near to seeing departing his lips. After an obviously reluctant admission that he was wrong to say the things he said, he proceeded to blame the entire mess on Bill Clinton. Ain't politics a scream?
 

Already the reluctant passengers are starting to abandon this rapidly-sinking ship. John McCain has withdrawn his support; RNC Chairman Reince Priebus seems to have gone into hiding (which is a very logical place to be); even some of the Tea Party crazies are starting to put as much distance between themselves and the Donald. In case it's escaped your notice, these folks have quite a low threshold when it comes to embarrassment. Apparently Trump was the straw that broke the elephant's back. Isn't that something?

 

KellyAnne Conway

The person in all of this with whom I have torrents of sympathy for is Trump's press secretary  KellyAnne Conway. To see this poor gal making the rounds of the television studios, vainly attempting to put a smiley face on this decomposing-carcass-of-a-campaign has been...."interesting" shall we say? I don't envy her, that's for sure. She comes off as very pleasant and gracious when the camera's red light is glowing, Heaven only knows what she's really thinking. I couldn't help noticing that in the last three months she has visibly aged. When this fiasco is finally over in less than a month, she needs to go on a nice, long retreat to a monastery in the Himalayas. It'll do wonders for her.

Now let's tally the figures here: He's lost women (an obvious no-brainer); He's lost the blacks; He's lost the Hispanics; He's lost the Catholics, He's lost the Jews; He's lost the Muslims (another no-brainer). So which group is it whose support he retains?

Upper middle aged, white Christian males with beer bellies and bad breath.

Gee, I'm sorry, but that's not really going to cut the mustard - not anymore. America has changed. Roll with the changes. If there was any doubt in your mind where the Trump for President campaign was headed beforehand, the events of this week should have placed things in their proper perspective. The time has come to fold up the tents and go home. It's all over now, Baby Blue. Hillary Clinton must, at this hour, be relishing her good luck.

BREAKING NEWS:

Reince Priebus and KellyAnne Conway have cancelled all of their TV appearances on the Sunday morning programs. Do I detect a crisis in the air? I can't wait for the debate tonight. That ought to be a hoot-and--half!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

1940-1980

SUGGESTED READING:

IT'S JOHNNY'S BIRTHDAY!!!
from The Rant - 10/9/10
 

John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool, England - seventy-six years ago today. Six years ago, on what would have been his seventieth birthday, I wrote this:

http://tomdegan.blogspot.com/2010/10/its-johnnys-birthday.html

In a little over four years he'll be gone longer from this world than he walked it. Imagine.