Travails of a Permanent American Presidential Campaign

Insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

August 2016.

Late August in Vermont.   The trees are beginning to show a touch of yellow, very slight, not yet beginning to turn.     Some of the leaves have fallen, still green but barely hinting of the cold, short days to come. The swimming pool, heated to 75 degrees is less than I am used to, but still, refreshing after a walk on verdant mountain trails that meander up and down, their steepness growing each year.

Donald Trump has shed his campaign manager, Paul Manefort, a robotic, dyed-hair martinet, who apparently has failed in his attempt make Donald appeal to the broad center of American voter.  When only 9% of voters has chosen the Republican nominee, there are many more votes that will be counted in the general election. And as discussed below, the Ukrainian-Putin connection having funneled money to Mr. Trump’s ex-consigliere.

Trump, according to Washington Post, has decided to run his campaign on the same basis as he ran his primary campaign and has selected a Breitbart executive Steve Bannon, to be his new campaign manager.  Bannon is noted, according to the Post's EJ Dionne,  having made a laudatory documentary of Sarah Palin, of all people, as a model for anti-establishment politics.  The crux of this strategy is to appeal to the same angry white uneducated segment of the population to create more damage and negativity toward Hillary Clinton.  And, for sure, letting Trump be Trump.

Waxing philosophically about this campaign is difficult because it requires a cynical perspective on the intelligence of the American electorate.

Stage left: Vladimir Putin championing Trump, since he will clearly, if one is to believe him, wreck the NATO alliance, because our allies are not paying "their fair share."   Seventy years of American diplomacy going down like the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever advanced by any American politician since Jefferson Davis.  As we all know by now ad nauseum , a litany of other proposals, the wall, the Mexicans paying for it, the deportations, the fearmongering, the appeal to tribalism, the ethos contrary to the American promise, etc. etc. etc.

September

Returning to a steamy Miami, paranoia about mosquitos,  we have since learned that Manefort was linked to Ukrainian money, further discrediting Trump's claim that he is less corrupt than Hillary. Trump already owning the field in Washington Post Pinocchios, even with Hillary’s deservedly less than forthcoming reputation, including the email scandal as well as 40 years of being accused of non-existing sins. 

Herein we see the flaw of the 25^th amendment.  The President could have easily won a third term.  A scandal free administration, an exemplary President, thoughtful and considered, but hated for his being black by a large segment of the electorate.  A stark reminder of how fragile our democracy is and how susceptible it is to demagoguery.

Even if Hillary wins this bedraggled campaign, one wonders if anything will be settled, unless the Democrats gain control of congress.   Republican obstructionism has prevented many worthwhile Obama initiatives from succeeding.   For example, a constitutional amendment that limits spending in Presidential campaigns would never pass the Republican house, even if the President proposed it.  Already Ted Cruz is gearing up for 2020, sensing a Hillary landslide. 

Hillary has just rolled out her new 757 aircraft in which she can transport the press in the same plane, proclaiming her unmitigated joy in having journalists share her multi-million dollar ride.    Billions spent to elect a president.  Insanity.

And then there are the endless emails, pontificating how Hillary needs help in defeating a person as odious as the Donald.  “Give now to save our democracy,” pleads every other new email.

Why it is necessary for candidates to office at any level money-grub their way along the trail?

There is certainly no guarantee that superior office holders emerge from an unseemly level of servitude created by the reception of such funds.

The system, which now binds Americans to perpetual campaigns anachronistically created by our past has no reason to exist.  Why do we have to start in Iowa?  Why do senators have to neglect their jobs running for office for two years?  Why are there battleground states in a silly electoral college that was originally established in the 18th century to ensure the balance of power among slave and free states?   Why are congressionally gerrymandered districts not against the law?  Why is there not direct popular vote election of the President?  The Federal system of government is not threatened by that.   No one is advocating abolition of the congress.

Our system would not be harmed by a national open primary for President.  One person one vote. Voting across party lines.   Federally funded national debates and television interviews.   A true Oxford Union format debate where each issue is advocated by the candidate, for example, "Resolved: that we should have a carbon tax" or “Resolved that taxes should be raised on incomes above $250,000."  You get the picture.   Then each candidate can expound, as did Lincoln and Douglas.   No stupid gotcha questions such as "why do you treat women like pigs?'  And please CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, etc.  Shut the f**k up.  Present some news instead of bits of information and reasons for catheter ads.  No young people are watching anyway.

Each candidate would then get to demonstrate his or her full level of knowledge, and not continue to insult the intelligence of the public, by answering prepared sound bites for already anticipated questions. Candidates would then have to stick to the important issues and give the voter enough information to make a decision, including the candidate’s level of knowledge on each subject.

Moreover, television ads should be strictly limited to the issues, if not should be banned despite the first amendment.   A constitutional re-write is in order, governing campaigns, money, debates, advertising and lobbyists. The Citizens United case should be dumped as was Dred Scott.  Both decisions are shameful.

Otherwise we will continue to suffer hamstringed government unable to do anything except have politicians continually run for office.  If America is polarized as much as people say, this guarantees a majority unable to exert its will.   This is a result of the slave/free state dichotomy created at the inception, and not yet negated, through civil war, civil rights movements and other national paroxysms of pain and tumult.

One source suggested, (I forget who) a board of historians to guide policy, so that the lessons of the past are not repeated, and because people forget that repeating the same failed policy is insanity.