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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