Donald And Bernie: The Frontrunners Who Aren't (Really) Running

Donald Trump And Bernie Sanders: Why They Are Really Running For President, On Today's POLITICAL RANT!! 

At the moment, the Republican frontrunner for President is business tycoon Donald Trump, while his Democratic counterpart remains former First Lady/U.S. Senator/Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton....with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at her heels. Should Mrs. Clinton's campaign disintegrate from the weight of increasing scandals, Sanders could well become the frontrunner for the Democrats.

What's interesting is that neither Mr. Trump nor Senator Sanders have any illusions about actually winning the Presidency.  Each has his own agenda. In fact, should either man get close to winning his party's respective nomination, they may regret this course of action.

Donald Trump has no reason to want to be President. He is the head of one of America's largest empires, with an ego to match. As President, he would be required to put all his investments in a blind trust. It's very hard to imagine a man like Mr. Trump trusting others with the fate of his vast wealth, let alone deny himself the sheer fun he has of charting that course on his own.


Trump is well versed in politics. Unlike his world, where he can hire and fire department heads at will, he would need congressional approval to hire the membership of his Cabinet. Unlike his world, in which he negotiates with others for the mutual advantage and profit of both, he would now be negotiating with parties whose agendas involve harm to the United States. If folks he nominates (and get confirmation) to the Supreme Court issues judgments he wasn't expecting, he can't fire them at all.

So why run? When he first announced his intentions, my thought was he simply wanted attention during a news cycle where people like him don't get much.  I was wrong.

When it became apparent he wasn't bluffing about running as a third-party candidate should the GOP reject him, another, more troubling reason emerged. It now seems Mr. Trump is trying to sabotage the Republican's chances of taking the White House next year.

Remember Ross Perot? He's a billionaire from Texas who did the same thing in 1992. Years earlier, Mr. Perot petitioned the Reagan administration to be included in projects the administration was working on. Vice-President George H.W. Bush advised President Reagan to say no, and he did. Perot never forgave Bush, and started work on what would become the Reform Party. A few years later, when now-President Bush was running for re-election, Perot showed up out of seemingly nowhere with his bogus Reform Party to run as an alternative to President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.  Running on a platform similar to the Republican Party's, Perot syphoned away enough votes from Bush to ensure a Clinton victory.

This, I fear, is  Mr. Trump's true objective.  He has a record of donating to Mrs. Clinton's causes, more than he has to Republican ones. This was the "unfair" subject Megan Kelly of Fox News asked him about during the recent GOP debate that made headlines for Trump's reaction alone. We in the Republican Party have good reason to be suspicious of Donald Trump.

Bernie Sanders is another candidate who has no intention of actually winning. His reasons are slightly more honorable than Mr. Trump's, though he's still being dishonest by pretending to mount a serious campaign.

Senator Sanders is registered as an Independent, but never fails to remind everyone he's a committed Socialist.  He recently tweeted that he plans to "dethrone God and destroy capitalism." The man doesn't leave much room on where he stands. And he's smart enough to know his views won't get him elected.

So why run? His views might not be accepted now, but they might later...IF he can get a large enough platform to preach on them. The biggest stage for the next year is the Presidential Nomination one. If he can show the Democratic Party and their nominee--whether it's Mrs. Clinton or someone else--that his message has a significant following, he'll probably merit a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention next year. And maybe even a place of prominence in the next administration, should the Democrats hold on to the White House.

Two very different men, with very different political views....both highly intelligent, and both using dishonest tactics to achieve their objectives.  Sadly, politics as usual....and unusual.

That's my POLITICAL RANT for Sunday, August 16 2015. Agree with it or live in wrongness.


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POLITICAL RANT:: Gays, Christians, And Discrimination

Discrimination is alive and well in America today...and where it's directed is the topic of today's POLITICAL RANT!

This past week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled gay couples may, indeed, be married in all fifty states.  This is, of course, a huge win for the gay community.  It's what they've been fighting years for.  The question of gay marriage has been answered.  The genie is not going back in the bottle.  For conservatives, evangelical Christians,  and others opposed to gay marriage, it's time to move to the next issue. And we need to do that right now.


The ruling is also a victory for anti-Christian bigots who will waste no time in using this to take legal action against churches and ministers.  This is the next issue conservatives and evangelical Christians need to focus on.


Ever since some states legalized gay marriage within their borders, we've seen stories of gay couples--usually financed by well heeled anti-Christian hate groups--successfully sue small time florists, caterers and bakeries with Christian owners. The owners, most of whom would have (and did) provide services for birthday parties and the like for gays, declined to service their gay weddings, due to religious convictions.  In almost every case, the business was forced to either close their doors, pay steep fines, or both.  We have little reason to believe these same groups won't now go after small churches and pastors with no money to mount a legal defense.  Given the Court ruling this past week, even a top legal team would find winning a case against these groups to be challenging at best.


Chief Justice Roberts himself--who voted with the minority, against legalizing gay marriage--said churches which refuse to host same-sex weddings risked losing their tax exempt status.  So we can see where the first shot will be fired in this new battle.


One may wonder why gays--or anyone else, for that matter--would want to hire someone to preform a service for their wedding who made it clear they oppose said wedding.  The only reasonable answer is the couple--or, more likely the hate group funding the legal action--has as their primary goal to forcing of the business to close, or forcing the owners to violate their faith. 


And thus, we have a new (as of the last couple years) target of discrimination. Not gays, but Christians.  If you own a business, says the courts, and the business deals with weddings, and you're a Christian, you must violate your faith.  This is bigotry.


Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), one of the leading presidential candidates,  was asked recently where he stood on the issue. He said if a gay man asked for a birthday cake for his same-sex partner, the baker should make it.  If it was a wedding cake, the baker should be free to decline, as it was for an event his faith doesn't let him be involved in.  Rubio's stance is the right one.


There was never any serious interest in passing a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between an man and a woman back when it was brought up.  I'm wondering if there would be serious interest in passing a Constitutional Amendment protecting the religious liberty of Americans not wanting to service events their faith forbids.


I hope so.


That's my POLITICAL RANT for Saturday, June 27, 2015. Agree with it or live in wrongness.


--Mighty Steve--


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