Don't Look now, but Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running neck and neck in the Iowa polls. Depending on which poll you look at it, it's either Trump or Cruz at the top. Everyone else is a distant third, including Marco Rubio, who was supposed to be the boy wonder, but has been stuck in the low to mid teens, and Ben Carson, who is finding out what Herman Cane found out four years ago, that even among Republican voters you have to seem like you know what you're talking about. Once more, Ben, Hummus is a food, Hamas is a terrorist group. Got it?
In a way, Trump and Cruz are a perfect match. I call them 1A and 1B. Trump has managed to galvanize the xenophobic racists within the Republican Party, which apparently comprise a substantial portion of the base. Cruz's ascendancy in the polls over the last couple of weeks is owed almost directly to his appeal among the conservative evangelical mob, the other substantial portion of the base. Taken together, the two now have approximately half of the vote locked up. Both are rabid antiestablishment, which is essential to any candidate looking to win the nomination. After nominating RINOs in the last two elections, the base has about had it. This time around they're demanding the real mccoy.
Never mind that neither of these two Neanderthals stands an ice cube's chance in hell of winning a national election. All that matters is the blind rage that is driving the base of the Republican Party. While Trump is responsible for the lion's share of it, Cruz is hardly an innocent babe. Let's not forget, he rode the Tea Party wave in 2010 and is responsible for some of the most inflammatory rhetoric of the campaign, some of which he's directed at his own party, including his favorite whipping boy: Mitch McConnell. He's despised by almost as many Republicans as Democrats.
But Cruz on his best day couldn't hold a candle to the Fuhrer: the Donald. In case you didn't catch his latest rally, he's calling for a complete ban on ALL Muslims entering the country. In a move that would make Hitler proud, he further announced he would go after the families of all Muslims he suspected of being terrorists.
"At least I would go after the wives who absolutely knew it was happening, and I guess your definition of what I'd do, I'm going to leave that to your imagination."
Well at least he isn't proposing they wear arm bands. At this point nothing Trump says seems to hurt him. Indeed, just the opposite. The more offensive he sounds, the more popular he becomes. I actually believe if Trump came out for the mass extermination of all Muslims, gays and Mexicans, he could wrap up the nomination tomorrow.
We are living in perilous times these days. There is a wave of nativism that is slowly gaining traction within the country. Many people are frightened and frightened people often react against their best interests. That someone like Donald Trump could rise to the top of the polls, even within the Republican Party, is a sign that something is terribly wrong.
It wasn't that long ago that people like Trump were dismissed as being mindless demagogues. Now he's eight weeks away from winning Iowa. If he wins New Hampshire, and he currently leads there, he might very well be unstoppable. And with Cruz as his running mate next fall, every wingnut in America will be in their glory.
Some people may think this is a huge joke. I happen to think it's shameful.
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