Trump Change

Eight years after America was first suckered by the promise of hope and change, we are now being offered the downgraded expectations of cope and change.

I refer, of course, to the apparent ascendancy of Donald Trump, he would offer us Trump Change, a state of affairs that rhymes with Chump Change. For one like myself who requires new material in order to comment on the political times and seasons, the Donald is the gift that just keeps on giving. And so let me make just a few additional observations.

Let us start with that cancelled Trump rally in Chicago. First, Trump is in fact an authoritarian personality and he blusters like one. His various comments about working protesters over are simply one more indication that we really are dealing with a low rent candidate. Simply file it as reason #498 why this man ought not get anywhere near political power. If someone gets in his way at a rally, his first instinct is to have the boys take the individual concerned out back in order to introduce him to a little eminent domain.

At the same time, secondly, the protesters at his rally in Chicago represent something far worse. Let us be frank, this tactic is something the progressive left uses routinely. They do it on college campuses all the time, and I have seen it in action myself. Claiming the right to shut down any form of hate speech, all they then have to do is maintain that any opinion differing from theirs must be hate speech. A gracious Christian woman could try to speak on a modern American campus in order to advance her thesis that women ought to spend more time at home baking biscuits from scratch, the kind you eat with honey/butter, and she would have protesters show up covered in fake blood, eager to shout her down. That’s the kind of thing they do, serene in the manifestation of their own righteousness. A woman making biscuits for her sweet baby is rape culture.

That said, let us turn to the festivities of today — the elections in Ohio and Florida, along with a handful of other states. Ohio and Florida are the center of the story because they are winner-take-all contests and the home states of the aspiring also-rans, Kasich and Rubio. Kasich has said that he will drop out if he doesn’t win his home state Ohio, and that would be good because it helps clear the field for Cruz. But it would also be good if he wins it, because he still has no chance and those delegates don’t go to Trump. So Ohio looks like a win/win situation to me.

If Rubio wins Florida, which is unlikely, it is another denial to Trump and so that is good. That wouldn’t give Rubio enough delegates to win the nomination (he has no path for that), but it would give him enough delegates to enable him to be a player at the convention. He would have to be taken into account. But if he loses in Florida, the pressure on him to drop out will be enormous. And if he manages to come in third, behind Cruz, just multiply that pressure.

In the meantime, Cruz has been playing it smart. He is making a play in Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina, and is seeking to gather delegates, not necessarily states. One of the things a number of pundits don’t seem to get is that the elimination of contestants dramatically alters the nature of the remaining contests. So if Trump is denied Florida and/or Ohio, Cruz is still right on his tail. If Trump takes Florida and/or Ohio, the ball and chain on Cruz’s left leg is taken off — let us call that one Kasich — and the ball and chain on his right leg — Rubio — is also taken off.

Why do people not recognize that a Trump/Cruz head-to-head race for the remaining hundreds of delegates would be a very different story than what we have seen thus far? Shoot, Cruz has been able to beat Trump in select states with the balls and chains.

By the way, Idaho would like to take this opportunity to salute our sister Wyoming.