Reality Check

We all experience moments when the present becomes inescapable, where we can’t imagine it away.  Such must be the awareness faced by the condemned once their execution becomes imminent or perhaps of a survivor in the desert as he drinks his last drops of water.  This is really happening, one might painfully acknowledge.

With his overwhelming win in Indiana, Donald Trump is now going to be one of two human beings to vie for the leadership of some 330 million Americans.  Donald Trump.  Donald Trump?? Sure we all knew the possibility, we observed the show, but…Donald Trump….really??

For me it was like looking down at the bottom of a dry cup and feeling sand between my lips. This is really going to happen??  Yes, America…it really is.

Let me point out that even through my incredulity I had welcomed his candidacy.  I even voted for him in the Virginia Primary with the thought that a vote for the Donald would do more to undermine Conservative extremism than a vote for Hillary.  Hopefully, I was right. 

Still, I’m concerned as to why he has appealed to so many.  Could I be so wrong about this Country or the acumen of its citizens? Why can’t these individuals, including many in the news media, see what is so plainly obvious to me?

I find I am not worried about Trump becoming President, not at this point.  I am, however, worried that he won’t be defeated by historic percentages.  A reasonably close race that doesn’t result in a major turnover of legislators will be a victory for insanity, regardless of having the first woman in the White House. 

There is a desperate need for new perspectives on how Americans can and should relate to one another. If there wasn’t Donald Trump would not have gotten further than his hotel escalator.

What can I do? Well…here’s my vow:  I’m not going to cower when confronted with blind stupidity or lemming-like rhetoric.  The choice is going to be between Trump and Hillary, and I believe picking Hillary is as excellent as choosing Trump is nuts.

Hillary Clinton has been vilified by Conservatives, primarily white men, for two decades.  What Barack Obama has had to face for 8 years, she has experienced, at varying levels, for 22.  Like Obama, whose main fault for Conservative men was his race, Clinton’s primary drawback is her gender. It is a fear that the America of the “Greatest Generation” of white men is being replaced by people that don’t look like them. They find threats and conspiracies around every corner.

Radio talk show hosts and Republican politicians alike have found profit in using and encouraging this fear for their own benefit.  Not a single politician fits the Republican Party they have crafted better than Donald Trump. It is contemptuous that they should be surprised by his success.

Still, good people I know who cannot tolerate Trump will tell me that Hillary is dishonest. They don’t know why they think she is, but they do. They have unwittingly sipped the Kool-Aid. When pressed they’ll reference the slams du’jour, computer servers and Benghazi. 

Pointing out that her attempt to secure her own email was a common practice (used by Republican princes such as Colin Powell) or that neither she nor anyone else in the Obama Administration had any role in conspiring to create or cover up the Benghazi attack (as confirmed by endless investigations) only results in an abrupt end to the discussion.

I won’t be deterred.

I’ll admit that I am bias to the notion that having a female President is an important, historic milestone for this Country.  I’ll also admit that the 22 year role Hillary Clinton has played in national politics feels tiresome to me.  I don’t even like the name Hillary.

That said, she is the only one I can conceive of her gender who can move this Country away from the bigotry and wealth concentration that Trump represents.  She has the potential to do what Bernie can only talk about.

My opinion of Hillary was crystallized on October 22^nd of last year.  I started watching the Congressional Benghazi 3^rd degree of Hillary that morning.  I watched 3 hours of grilling into the early afternoon and, even though I was impressed with her abilities to take on the litany of absurd attacks, I’d had enough. Later, after an early dinner, I turned on the news to see how the event went and was blown away to find that it was still in progress. I turned C-Span back on and watch for another 3 hours till it ended.

She handled aggressive, combative congressmen with intelligence and poise.  She took for 11 hours what Trump couldn’t do for 30 minutes.   If she can run her campaign with the same firm resolve, absent of political doublespeak, hyperbole and emotion, then I think she will get her overwhelming victory, which will be a victory for us all.

Then perhaps we can sit back and watch her appoint Barack Obama to the Supreme Court.