Campaign 2016 Is Reshaping Both Political Parties

What in the world is going on out there?

We’re still months away from the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, the true harbingers of the 2016 presidential election campaign, but already the American electoral process is showing signs of:

Collapse and an essential, restless weirdness that can only be found in politics and maybe a 1960s rock festival.

Can you imagine, for instance an eventual final campaign lineup that pits Republican dark prince Ted Cruz against a severely politically wounded, vulnerable Hilary Clinton (or even Joe Biden), with the clown crown prince Donald Trump running an independent campaign, and Bernie Sanders from Vermont running another as a socialist?

Not likely, you say. Maybe not even legal.   But then again, maybe not.   In fact, after what’s happened so far, anything could happen. The two-party system which the American people have come to love and loathe, all at the same time, is suffering a major migraine.  Don McLean should do a reboot of “American Pie,” and make it a song about politics.  Most of the lyrics would still fit.

Consider to begin with what’s happened to the Republicans, that Grand Old Party which sprung out of the Whig party, spearheaded by the Pathfinder John Fremont and led to victory by Abraham Lincoln.  They began the campaign with a roster that was big enough to be an amateur football team—17 all told, which caused something you’ve never seen in the history of American politics.  The GOP held a debate on GOP-friendly Fox and fielded  a varsity and a junior varsity, although it was difficult to tell which was which. One had Trump, and the other didn’t.  One “debate” included a woman, and the other didn’t.  One had a black candidate; the other didn’t.  Both of them wanted to repeal Obamacare.

If any other candidate had dissed John McCain for being captured, questioned his heroic qualities,  talked about Mexican rapists on the border, boasted constantly about how rich he was (“really rich,” it turns out),  and insulted one woman reporter and women in general he or she would long ago have dropped out of the race in sheer embarrassment  and shame.  But Donald Trump is incapable of showing embarrassment, and for sure he has less than zero shame.

The unwieldy formats and large number of would-be-presidents have made it  impossible for anyone else to be heard above the din.  Carly Fiorina stood out among the B team, not a difficult thing to do since it included a lineup made up almost entirely of former something-or-others.

On the other side, Hillary Clinton is  now officially in hot water over her emails, because Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants to hold a hearing.  Tell Issa that it’s raining in Japan, and he’ll want to hold a hearing on  it. Clinton, once the dead-certain front-runner—an experience which she’s had experience with—is now seen negatively by a majority of voters, as is Trump.  Bernie Sanders is getting big crowds, and people are buzzing about a possible Joe Biden run.

Is this crazy or what?

A few things are certain.  People are so unhappy about the status quo: nothing get done, and politicians—many of whom are lawyers—are more distrusted than lawyers.   Many people—the economically distressed members of the white, struggling class—are so angry that they’ll swallow Trump’s attempt to present himself as a populist, a man of the people who earned his wealth the “hard” way—he inherited it.

As has been suggested by media and politicians alike, people are really ticked off.  They’re not listening to anybody. They want change. They want a wall, walling off Mexico. They wanted ISIS conquered. They want good jobs which they see going overseas. They want . . .

. . . Change, even if it means changing the whole electoral system and letting chaos reign in the 2016 elections.  It wouldn’t be the first time that the outsider spirit from a dispirited electorate has had a huge impact on elections.  Look at Ross Perot’s two independent runs back in the 1990s which guaranteed two Clinton (Bill) victories. Look at Theodore Roosevelt and his Bull Moose party, derailing Taft’s re-election campaign.  Look at the 1860 campaign, derailed by two Democratic candidates, one of whom was from an about-to-secede South, that guaranteed Lincoln’s election.

So, it’s bye-bye, Miss American party, good old boys drinking whiskey and wry. Don’t bother driving your Chevy to the levee, because American parties have run dry of ideas and political appeal.