The Donald's Hate Trumps All in Race for White House

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

11 July 15

overage of the presidential election has become Trump, more Trump, and Trump all the time. We all know that while it is good TV, the media could ignore him the same way they ignore candidates they think don’t have a shot to win. When is the last time you saw a story on CNN or any other network about John Kasich, who is running for president? I do sometimes hear the Ohio governor mentioned in speculation about who will be left out of the GOP debates. Usually they say Trump will be in and Kasich will be out, so if it weren’t for Trump we wouldn’t hear anything about Kasich.

Hillary Clinton gave her first national interview of the campaign and the only thing I see reported about it is that she didn’t attack Trump but instead turned her fire to Jeb Bush on immigration. So once again it’s part of the infatuation with Trump that is the lead-in to that story.

The Donald has certainly captured the attention of the birthers and the other wackos you see carrying the crazy signs at Tea Party rallies. He probably has the support of the militia types, who think their way of life is at risk because of immigration. I wonder if, in a field of 17, consolidating that crowd is enough to put Trump at the top of the GOP field. Perhaps the solution to Trump will be a fast thinning of the field.

It won’t really help for the less-than-one-percenters to leave, but if a bunch of the less-than-5-percenters throw in the towel, the influence of the extreme wackos will be dampened. I use the term “extreme” wackos because, while we think Ted Cruz, Lyndsey Graham, and others are nuts in their own right, they do have a stronger grip on reality than members of the Michigan Militia and the tin hat-wearing conspiracy nuts out there.

The reality is that Donald will do well in a 17-candidate field, but will fade when the race gets down to 5 or 6. Trump will also help the Democrats, as he will expose how many lunatics are in the Republican Party. Get your popcorn ready and just sit back and watch the Republicans implode while the Democrats have a reasonable debate on the issues that matter. The Democrats are aiming their fire at the right targets – “the billionaire class,” as Bernie Sanders likes to say.

If the Democrats stay out of the mud that Trump is creating and let the GOP wrestle in it, they will come away in great shape. So here is what you may have missed that happened in Iowa since The Donald sucked all the oxygen out of the presidential race.

Ted Cruz

Following the Supreme Court decisions that caused many heads to explode in the right wing of the Republican Party, Senator Cruz, who was a clerk for Justice William Rehnquist, abandoned his often stated defense of the Constitution. Cruz promised to push through a Constitutional Amendment to force Supreme Court justices to face retention elections every 10 years. Just think about how much money would flow into Antonin Scalia’s super pac.

Yup, that’s what we need, Supreme Court justices campaigning every 10 years to keep their seat. Hmm, wait a minute, maybe Cruz should think that through: if more Democrats vote in every national election now, Scalia and Thomas could be toast. No, it’s a bad idea, but ...

Cruz is also longing for a return to the days of Ronald Reagan. Twice in his new stump speech, in a half full auditorium in Des Moines that Bernie Sanders packed to the rafters, Cruz talked about the Iranian government releasing the hostages within hours of Reagan being sworn in as president. Cruz failed to mention that the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran to get those hostages released. Cruz also bashed Obama for “negotiating with the enemy” (Iran). I don’t know about you, but negotiating a deal to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon seems like a good thing to me, when compared to selling arms for hostages.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton made her second trip to Iowa since her big announcement and held one public event and a house party. I have to give Clinton props for taking questions from the crowd at her public event at the Iowa City Public Library. 350 people were able to get inside, while the Des Moines Register reported that “scores” were turned away. Clinton also gave her first national media interview and promised more to come. I will hold my tongue.

Next Week

To be honest, since Bernie Sanders stormed through Iowa last week, Hillary Clinton’s event has been the only one of note here. It was a slow week, but that will change next week. All of the Democratic candidates will be on the same stage on Friday in Cedar Rapids. The Annual Hall of Fame dinner will take place in Cedar Rapids. It is a fundraiser for the Iowa Democratic Party. Only Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb have shared the same stage so far in this election cycle, so it will be interesting to see the reaction of the most active Democrats when all the candidates are together.

Many of the Republicans will be sharing the same stage the next day in Ames, Iowa. Ben Carson, Sen. Ted Cruz, former governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. Bobby Jindal, former governor Rick Perry, Sen. Marco Rubio, former senator Rick Santorum, businessman Donald Trump, and Gov. Scott Walker will speak at the 2015 Family Leadership Summit.

So it will be an interesting week. I’ll bet the Family Leadership Summit will get all the headlines, although Bernie and Hillary in the same room should get some. Those headlines will last a day, and then they will be trumped by The Donald.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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