Dear Daily Kos Community,
This is the first time I’m writing you, and it may well be the last, but I have some unfortunate news that some of you may have to start coming around to: Donald Trump is going to be your next president.
Believe me, I didn’t come around to this realization easily myself, but after stepping back and looking at the developing situation for what it is, I’m afraid that it is fast becoming an inevitability.
In 2016, America will nominate its first joke president. Trump is the first candidate to my knowledge to gain a nomination for strictly ironic reasons; he is (laughably enough) the anti-establishment candidate who has tapped into the feelings of angst and disenfranchisement sweeping both sides of the political spectrum—the last one standing from a copious coterie of voices saying ostensibly the same thing in an embarrassing spectacle indicative of a party which has lost control, but one which is, by clinging to its core principles, allowing its base to determine its fate (for better or worse).
Nevertheless, there is one thing that unifies Republicans of all stripes, and it sure as shit isn’t Donald Trump. Republican disdain for Barack Obama is palpable and consistent, but it is also fleeting—he came onto the scene relatively quickly, and will most likely leave the world of politics behind with a click of his heels. Ultimately, however, this aforementioned distain is dwarfed by conservatives’ decades-old suspicion and collective contempt for Hillary Clinton.
Republicans have been coming out in droves this primary for a swath of candidates willing to say just about anything to out-ignorant each other in an effort to play to the party’s lowest common denominators and rally support. For his part, Trump has simply been willing to go lower than anyone else to stake his claim and thus, has emerged the richest for it. (For what it’s worth, I don’t think for a second that this man actually believes any of the vile he espouses, and when he’s president he will fall in line like they all do. After all, Trump is an international businessman. He only sees one color, and therefore will have no problem sitting across the table from a Muslim with money, or a Hispanic with money, or a Russian with money, as long as they’re all speaking the same language.)
Democrats on the other hand, while walking into this race with seemingly every possible advantage and history on their side, will find themselves in an irreversible hole—fewer governors nationally, no power in Congress, no presidency, and a Supreme Court about to receive a fresh coat of paint. Obama’s legacy will be butchered unrecognizable and our country will be more divided than it’s been since the Restoration, and for all this we have only the “liberal establishment” to thank.
Between the DNC’s overt deck-stacking, one-sided media coverage, and the abetting of leaders, organizations, and campaigns progressives used to hold dear, the Left has successfully become every bit as dichotomized as their right-leaning counterparts.
The 2016 election will then come down to which candidate the electorate hates more, Clinton or Trump, and while a portion of the country might actually prefer for the international community to see an election between, say, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, Americans are constantly reminded that we live under a two-party system, and one of those parties seems poised to bite the bullet and yield to the fervor sweeping through its base. Democrats, on the other hand, have chosen instead to marginalize, suppress, and demoralize their core supporters, leaving young voters and progressives feeling disenfranchised, resentful, and, at the very least, unenthusiastic.
And this is where, for Bernie Sanders supporters, the sardonicism of this whole election shifts from disparagement to indignation. Much like their Republican counterparts, liberal elites have actively engaged in voter suppression this primary cycle by so passively engaging in voter registration. Some of the cynics and conspiracy theorists on the far left have speculated that this was a concerted effort to limit support for Sanders—since most unregistered voters tend to be young and poor—but deliberate or not, the results are becoming increasingly clear: voter turnout among Democrats is down across the board in the last four contests, while only the opposite is true for those on the other side.
With a growing portion of progressives signing pledges to not vote for Hillary no matter what, saying they’ll go Green, write Bernie in, or stay home, and entire segments of the population who might typically vote Democrat remaining unregistered or uninterested, compounded by the continued efforts on the Right to suppress voter rights and gerrymander their way to victory, all combined with the unifying power Clinton has among conservatives across the country, those of us with access to a calculator are beginning to see the writing on the wall, and are crossing our fingers that the country makes it to 2020.
Thank you for your time.