The triumph of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on Super Tuesday, the most consequential night of voting so far in the American presidential election, was no surprise to anyone, least of all to pollsters who had predicted that the foul-mouthed real estate mogul and the deeply-flawed politician will score big in all 12 states where voters had cast their primary votes.
Predictions aside, the results simply highlighted the divergent paths that the two major parties, representing Democrats and Republicans, have taken in their competition to occupy the White House. Whereas the Democrats have conducted a mostly civilized debate, and ran a mostly civil campaign, with voters rallying here behind Hillary and Bernie, opting for consensus, the Republicans have hurled insults and venomous accusations at each other.
Hillary, the 68-year-old Chicago native, former first lady, senator and 67th secretary of state, is now assured of the nomination by her party at its National Convention in Philadelphia, July 25-28 — that is, barring any unseen, but unlikely, emergence of a rabbit from under a hat between now and then.
Yet Bernie soldiers on, vowing to pursue what in effect is a mirage, undaunted by his losses last Tuesday, but buoyed by millions of dollars in campaign donations. The sad fact for the senator from Vermont is that the pursuit of such a goal — given the facts on the ground and the math on the board — will be like shaking hands with smoke. It ain’t there, and it ain’t gonna happen. Democrats are not as angry at the world, as alienated from objective reality, as their Republican counterparts, who crave to, well, do away with political correctness.
All of which leaves us with the insufferable Trump, and his two by now not so credible contenders for the nomination, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, politicians who are not only to the right of the bawdy billionaire on many issues but are ready to espouse a more brazen brand of bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Still, they are not likely to catch up with the man, whose lead on Super Tuesday will put him on an unstoppable path to a sure nomination by the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 18-21, especially if Rubio loses in Florida in the middle of March — a state vital to his survival, a state where he will make his last stand and where, should he lose, his fate will be sealed.
And Ted Cruz is running scared. As the New York Times reported last Wednesday: “His expectations sound rather fatalistic these days. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio said of his chances to become the nominee, ‘All these thee things are in God’s hands’.” It’s commendable for one to put one’s trust in God but, on a teleological level, God will not help racists in their endeavors.
And that leaves Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as seems likely, to lock horns in the general election in November — with many in the Republican establishment, who despise the Trump, not just for his crassness but for debasing the ideals of “Lincoln’s party,” scared witless. Are they giving away their chance to occupy the White House, choose the next Supreme Court Justice and impose their agenda on the country? Let’s face it: Should Hillary be pitted against Trump in November, Hillary will crush — simply crush to smithereens — Trump. No way out, around or through that.
And if Hillary wins, she will literally make history, for no one party has ever occupied the White House over three consecutive terms in donkey’s years.
Since the end of the 20-year Democratic reign in the White House, that began with Franklin D. Roosevelt and ended with Harry Truman, only once was a major party able to extend its control of the White House to three terms, and that happened in 1988 when Republican George H. W. Bush won what some have called “Ronald Reagan’s third term.”
The Democrats in the White House again in January 2017? That would be a history-making event, and that will prove to Americans, no less than to the outside world, that America is indeed the land of the free and the brave, whose people repudiate a presidential candidate who openly flaunts his racist posture and unabashedly verbalizes his shallow ideas. Stay tuned, folks.
