(independent)

If you were consult the California voting rolls, you would find that I am a registered Republican.  Please don’t tell anyone.    As a conservative on defense and fiscal issues but a moderate on social issues, the party to which I am registered usually reflects my priorities at the time of registering.  I am used to being unhappy with certain avowed policies of my party of the moment, but I have never been embarrassed to be registered to a party until now.  I don’t blame the Republican party for nominating Donald Trump.  The party leadership did everything it could to convince a certain segment of our citizenry that he was unfit to be president.   Inexplicably, those citizens ignored the party leaders and nominated The Reality Show Candidate anyway. What I’m embarrassed about is that once the deed was done, so many of those who said he was unfit turned around and supported him.  GOP leaders John Ryan and Mitch McConnell were particularly outspoken in their criticism of Trump and therefore looked especially hypocritical when they decided to back him.   During the last election, I was a lukewarm supporter of Mitt Romney.   He’s looking pretty good to my eyes now.   Integrity counts.  So-called conservative talk show hosts like Limbaugh and Hannity, too, have shown their true colors and supported The Reality Show Candidate.   So, please, in spite of my current party affiliation, call me independent.

Then there’s Hillary.  As it began to look like Trump would win the Republican nomination, I told my liberal friend, Ralph, that I’d probably have to support Hillary if Trump won.   He thought that was funny as hell.  He asked, What will you do if Sanders wins?   If I ever voted for a socialist, my Dad would come out of the grave to get me, I told him, but it’s a measure of how much Trump scares me that I’d have considered voting for ol’ Bernie, too.  Considered.   But Bernie and his merry the-government-should-provide-everything band of whiners make it harder for me to swallow the Democratic platform, pushed to the left as it was to assure Bernie’s support.  I take some solace in my belief that Hillary is a pragmatist and a Moderate, if only because she, like her husband before her, is finely tuned to what her constituency wants.  My conservative … and perhaps Trump-supporting … friends would probably ask, But do you trust Hillary?   Her political instincts often lead her to poor choices, like lying about Bengazi, and some of her decisions may be suspect.   But, Jeez, on what basis do I predict Trump’s decision-making in a world he’s never touched.   Given his tendency to over-react to criticism (even while doling it out in spades) and his insistence that only he can save our country, I’d put it this way.   I’m not sure I trust Hillary Clinton but Trump scares me to death.

If that doesn’t sound like enthusiasm, it’s because it’s not.   But I haven’t enthusiastically supported a candidate in years.   And as a citizen of the State of California, I have the option of sitting this one out without affecting the outcome in the slightest.  After all, California will most certainly go Democratic.  Let’s see where we are in 100 days.  Of course, at my age, I can see a somewhat humorous irony in almost anything.  Last election, desperate for news favorable to Mitt, I listened almost exclusively to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.  Here I sit, four years later, avoiding the same sources like the plague.  Freaking hysterical.

Explore posts in the same categories: curmudgeonly rants

Tags: curmudgeonly rants, elections, feeling older, humor, perspectives, politics

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.