Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

By ERIC BLUMBERG

With all due respect to Fleetwood Mac and with less due respect to the 1992 presidential winner, who co-opted the song for victory night, I can’t stop thinking about this current campaign and how we will likely see him and the misses in the White House again.

Before looking ahead, however, let’s set up this presumptive clash between Trump, New York’s biggest mouth, and Hillary, New York’s queen of the quid pro quo.

Most of us remember the thrill of that night when Bill and Hillary and Al and Tipper danced to Stevie and Lindsay’s seminal ’70s hit. The stage, that night, held all the promise of better times even though Slick Willie had already been found out to be a miserable lecher.

Despite his own rock star status, Clinton’s eight years brought the Democratic Party to the right of center, gave African-Americans the shaft with Welfare to Work and unequal penalties for crack and cocaine, and brought shame and embarrassment to the entire nation with his sexual escapades and subsequent impeachment. And now, all this baggage is packed and ready to move right into the White House next January.

But let’s go back even further to the year of my birth, 1952. This was the last year a non-politician was in the hunt for the Republican nomination, just as it is today. In fact, the GOP establishment didn’t even think Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of them, just as it is today. They also didn’t believe his worldview was worth a darn, just as it is today. To top off these congruencies is the fact Ike never took the nuclear card off the table, and neither will Trump, so he says. One more tidbit to whet the appetite. Ike ran against Adlai Stevenson, who would become Secretary of State, while Trump will be running against a former chief diplomat.

No, Trump is no Eisenhower in any way, shape or form although one might consider him a Bizzaro form of Ike. Nonetheless, the former allied commander was definitely thought of as an outsider, who never really got all of his footing until the establishment coalesced behind him. Thus far it seems Trump’s campaign is following a similar trajectory. The biggest difference here is Eisenhower won and Big Mouth has no chance in hell of becoming our next POTUS.

Despite the foregone collusion, which has Hillary coming back home to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it is the upcoming campaign between the two heavyweights that has me all a tingle with excitement. This battle will rival anyone of the Ali-Frazier epics.

In one corner, the undisputed king of the fake out. If anyone believes Trump is serious about any of his pronouncements regarding women, undocumented aliens, Muslims, prisoners-of-war, and making America great again, do not worry. Trump is running for president only to please himself and his lack of polity is an act devised to elicit public outrage.

I’m from NYC and believe me I can tell when someone is full of it or a serious threat. That’s why I always considered Lyin’ Ted to be one of the more frightening candidates I’ve ever seen. Alas, he is no more and must now return to the US Senate where he will be even more shunned than before.

Hillary, of course, is now Trump’s only opponent in the race. She comes to the dance dragging her husband’s reputation around her neck like a dead albatross. In addition, everything in her resumé will be under attack including the emails, Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation and The Clinton Global Initiative, her untrustworthiness, her love for the New York banks. Plus she’ll have to contend with the scrutiny she’ll receive from Sanders supporters.

What’s not to like about the prospects of this contests? Every day will bring more and more twists and turns as the population comes together to form an unending crawl of rubberneckers checking out the latest collision. This all will culminate in the Queen prevailing in November, leaving only one major question unanswered.

Will Trump’s status at the top of the ticket doom down ballot Republicans allowing Hillary to come to work with, at least, one congressional body in her court? We had better pray so. Because if you think the GOP was hard on Obama, their beef with the Clintons is so deeply engrained, we might be stuck again in a climate where we’ll never be able to think about tomorrow without thinking about how the country’s political enemies never care about the nation’s future.

Eric Blumberg is a former radio news reporter and talk show host who now teaches communications and writing at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City. See ericblumberg.net.

From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2016

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