Race for the White House 2020 # 34

It must really be a small world after all.

This first bit of news, I really do not know where to put in this entry, but I feel like I have to mention it.

A couple of years ago, I noted my surprise that one-time suburban Chicago Republican perennial candidate Jon Cox, whom I used to see a lot in political circles, became the GOP nominee for Governor of California. Despite his many attempts, I never expected he would ever be the statewide nominee for anything anywhere.

Last week, I noted my ever increasing admiration of former Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois. He was such a toxic politician, I used to fear that he would attempt to run for Governor or U.S. Senate in my home state and potentially ruin the chances of other Republicans or of the party itself. Now, I am basically pining for him to run for President of the United States, and the news this week is apparently that is going to happen. Walsh is said to be preparing a kamikaze run as a Republican against Donald Trump in which he will spend every day reminding the party what a horrible person Donald Trump is and how unfit for the Presidency he is. Sign me up! This campaign will be based very close to my home and if nothing else, it should be a lot of fun and cathartic.

However, the news I heard a short while ago is just even weirder. There's a guy named Phil Collins, (not to be confused with the British singer), but hey, that's not ballot name I suppose. Anyways. Collins has run for all sorts of offices for basically the past 20 years. He also used to live in my area, and I believe after a brief stint in Las Vegas, is now back in the area. He would run as a write-in for GOP primaries or as a third party candidate for all sorts of offices, but none higher than U.S. Congress. He even managed to get elected (I blame it on his name) to Township office and to a community college board, where he declined to take a seat because he was moving to Nevada.

So, about 15 years ago, Phil and I were commenting a good deal on the same political blog and I have all the time since continued to see his comments on blogs related to Illinois politics. We would communicate a bit online and as it turned out he was moving into my Township at around that time and wanted to be active in our local Republican organization. So, I met him a few times and he was perfectly nice and all that. He is just pretty much the textbook definition of a political gadfly. I admire the fact that he served in the U.S. Armed Forces, but he has seemed to be continuously unemployed (based on his Twitter bio) for several years now and is just a bit of an odd character. Several weeks ago, I read he that he had somehow become the replacement nominee for Vice President of the long-established, but completely irrelevant Prohibition Party. Now, today, I see he is their replacement nominee for President of the United States wow. I could not feel that one coming in the air tonight. I feel like this is far more of a land of confusion.

Against all odds, Phil Collins of Nevada/Illinois is not going to be elected President (and almost certainly will not be on my ballot) but he is still certainly a better choice than Trump or the eventual Democrat. Should I vote for him? I have never been much of a drinker either. For now, I will stick with the guy who shares a name with another rock figure.

Moving forward, the massive Democrat field is shrinking and the GOP field might be getting larger. The aforementioned Joe Walsh is saying he will make his decision official before Labor Day. As I have covered before, Mark Sanford is also saying he is leaning towards a run. I even saw some rumors this week that Jeff Flake and John Kasich may be reconsidering. In the meantime, the incumbent, Donald Trump had another wacky and shameful week, calling himself the "Chosen One", and various other goofy things I cannot even think of at the moment, beyond saying that Jews who vote Democrat are disloyal to Israel. What a horrible thing to say about Jared and Ivanka! This Jew has happened to never vote for a Democrat, of course unlike Trump himself, but I am also smart enough and principled enough to never vote for Trump. Must it be said by bringing up the concept of "loyalty" that Trump found himself swimming in the same anti-Semitic waters as Ilhan Omar?

Last week, John Hickenlooper quit the Democrat field and as many have predicted for months is now a U.S. Senate candidate in Colorado. This week, saw the exit of Jay Inslee, who is now seeking a third term as Governor of Washington, and Seth Moulton, who will be running for another Congressional term in Massachusetts.

This means that Steve Bullock of Montana is the sole Democrat Governor remaining in the race. (Unless I am missing someone off the top of my head.) The exit of Hickenlooper is not expected to be a big boost to his fellow Coloradoan Michael Bennet, whom I should mention was once a Chief of Staff and protege to Hickenlooper, but still ran against him anyway. (See Rubio, Marco, 2016 campaign of.)

I find the Moulton story semi-interesting. While he is very young (at least for the Presidency), he is a military vet and someone who perhaps among all the Democrats running this cycle, "looks the part" of a President. Yet, because he could never even reach 1 percent in the polls, he never got into any debate. I happen to think he might have had a strong impression on some had they ever seen him on tv, but that was not to be. Moulton will have to hope for more opportunities in the future. Trump even had a (rare for him) funny Tweet this week when he joked that the stock market crashed on Friday because Moulton dropped out of the race. Someone must have wrote that for Trump.

Beyond that somewhat funny but of course beneath the dignity of the office Tweet, there were a whole bunch of things I saw online or elsewhere yesterday that have me feeling pretty down about the state of things in this country.

We truly live in the Age of Trump and as the saying goes perhaps have the President we deserve. His lies and exaggerations are famous. Perhaps nothing has ever had me as pissed off as Trump than the times he said that he "watched hundreds of Muslims celebrate" the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New Jersey. No such thing happened. Period.

Recently, top tier Democrat contenders Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris both released statements which they say were in marking the anniversary of the "murder" of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Nonesense. While the death of young Mr. Brown was indeed a tragedy in many ways, he was not murdered. That was determined and confirmed by none other than the Obama Justice Department and announced by Attorney General Eric Holder. Who the hell are Warren and Harris to say otherwise and inflame racial tensions? Facts are facts and the police officer who ended Brown's life had no choice based on those facts, if he were to save his own.

Yesterday specifically though saw the news that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was treated for pancreatic cancer once again. Needless to say that disease is a nightmare. My family knows that firsthand, but it is said that Ginsburg's treatment was successful and no further action is needed. Whatever one thinks of her Court opinions, that should be considered great news. Even Trump went before cameras and wished her well and praised her forcefully for her "toughness."

However, Trump backers online took a different tact and I saw numerous comments predicting she was about to die (which has been said about her for years now) or that she needs to retire whether she wants to or not. These people merely want another conservative on the Supreme Court.  I would like another conservative on the Supreme Court as well, but I certainly do not want to see anyone die in order for that to happen. Ginsburg has ever right to stay on the Court, if she wishes, until her last breath, and I hope that is many years from now. It is easily understood why she would not want Trump to name her replacement, anybit more than her good friend, the late Antonin Scalia would not have wanted Barack Obama to replace him.

Even worse though was the reaction in some quarters to the news yesterday that wealthy industrialist David Koch, (the 1980 Vice Presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party) had died at age 79, likely from cancer.

For several election cycles, Koch and his brother have been villianized by the left for the spending in the political arena on behalf of conservative causes. That is to be expected, just as conservatives point to George Soros, but it is pretty lousy from a human standpoint to take glee in the death of anyone, who was simply exercising his constitutional right to free political speech. The Koch Brothers may have had a lot of influence, but they never stole an election. Voters vote and all Americans needs to accept that. Everytime.

Yes, Koch financed conservative causes and many on the left in vicious terms hold him responsible for "climate change" as if one person or one set of brothers could have that much power, but Koch's story is actually more complex that that. While he was certainly conservative in his economic views, he held very liberal views on social issues such as drug legalization, abortion, and gay rights, in league perhaps with his libertarian roots.  He also donated millions of dollars over many years to cancer research (and the very center where Justice Ginsburg was just treated) , educational endeavors, prison reform causes, and the arts. Can people find at least something to honor him for or at least just keep quite immediately after someone dies?

David Koch also refused to ever back Donald Trump for President, so perhaps the incumbent might not have anything nice to say about him either, but I saw comments yesterday from left-wing blog commenters and comedian Bill Maher that were just beyond tacky and beyond the realm of human compassion.

Whether it relates to the health challenges of Justice Ginsburg or the passing of Mr. Kock, we can merely hope that the voices we see online or on tv are just those of the bullying minority and not the silent majority. For too many of our fellow Americans though, the Age of Trump suits them all too well.