Bet you didn’t think Trump and Sanders have anything in common — but they do. One might even say that they have everything in common, in that the very key of their platform is essentially the same. No, I’m not talking about the Free College that gets the young ‘uns excited. Nor the single payer healthcare system, nor the $15/hr minimum wage. But each of the two of them promises protectionism. They promise a narrow protectionism of trade restrictions, and... Read more
Yeah, not an elegant post title, but if you were creating a political system from scratch, would you design a two-party system as it exists in the U.S. today? Imagine that Donald Trump was not an uncouth promiser of war crimes, but instead had a coherent and reasonable policy platform that (a) inspired large swathes of the American public and (b) did not fit neatly, or even at all, into either party’s platform. Not hard to imagine, really, considering that... Read more
That is, Fear of Deep Fat Frying (not to be confused with FOMA, or Fear of Missing Out). Pictured above is the fryer I bought at Aldi, oh, about a month ago by now. I dithered and dawdled about unpacking it until I finally did so on Thursday, when I made french fries, and then followed that up with fish sticks yesterday. And it works, and it’s pretty cool how quickly you can make these sorts of items, and how... Read more
As of today, on Real Clear Politics, here are the outcomes of head-to-head match-up polling: Trump v. Clinton: Dems up by 3.4 Rubio v. Clinton: GOP up by 5 Cruz v. Clinton: GOP up by 1.5 Kasich v. Clinton: GOP up by 7.4 Trump v. Sanders: Dems up by 8 Rubio v. Sanders: Dems up by 3.3 Cruz v. Sanders: Dems up by 9.7 Kasich v. Sanders: Dems up by 0.5 Who wants to take a stab at explaining why,... Read more
You can tell it’s the beginning of the month because I can link to the Post and the Times again. (Some day, if I strike it rich blogging, I’ll spluge and subscribe to the Post in addition to the Trib.) But here’s something that, so far as I know, went unnoticed: Apple and Intel have announced that they have eliminated the gender gap and have achieved perfect pay equity in measuring men’s vs. women’s pay. Apple is reported on here, in... Read more
So right now, pundits are speculating: should each remaining GOP candidate stay in the race, because there’s a risk, if any drop out, that their supporters will choose Trump instead? Or should they consolidate, to improve the odds that the Last Non-Trump Standing will win in the crucial winner-take-all states? Me, I think the latter. Or, rather, here’s the issue: no matter what differences there are between Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich, at this point the fundamental issue is this: Trump... Read more
No, it’s not a matter of preserving the status quo, or about reserving the Presidency for politicians who have worked their way up through the Party. It’s not about the fact that he wants to build a wall along the Mexican border, either. It’s not about his multiple marriages, either, or the extent to which he is or isn’t genuinely Christian. There are practicality issues: can Trump actually do what he says he will? I think it’s foolish to believe... Read more
You all know her. Or him. That person who blames everyone else for the things that have gone wrong with her (or his) life. The missed career opportunities. The troubled relationship. The failure to achieve whatever their goal might be, or even just have a stable family life, or pay the bills on time. It’s all someone else’s fault, or the fault of some sort of “ism” — even though any outsider can see the poor decision-making that landed her... Read more
Look, Trump is spectacularly awful. Cruz is just bad. And Rubio? Well, I support him, but his chances of pulling this off and getting the nomination are discouragingly slim. At the same time, if you asked me whether I’d vote for Trump if it came to that, I’d admit that I’m not ready to contemplate that scenario, because it’s such a nightmare. At the same time, there are Republicans who are saying, “I’ll vote Hillary over Trump.” I can’t say... Read more
It’s Super Tuesday Eve, and the polls, and the twitter feed, are pretty depressing. Real Clear Politics shows Trump ahead by 14 in Virginia, by 15 in Georgia, by 27 in Massachusetts, and so on. The only state, of those with enough recent polling for RCP to calculate averages, where Trump isn’t leading by a significant margin, is Ted Cruz’s native Texas. It’s deeply discouraging to listen to Trump, and to his supporters. It’s not just that he makes unsupportable... Read more
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