Hello President Hillary

Because these blog archives are stored on-line permanently (and of course by "permanently", I mean "as long as it fits Google's business model to continue to host this blog for free"), I thought it might be fun to engage in a little game of prognostication, and then check back in a year's time to see how I did.

Although right now, dear reader, I imagine you're rolling your eyes and saying, "Oh, way to try to take credit for the obvious ones!  I suppose you're also going to predict that the snow will melt in spring."

That is what you're thinking, right?  This is pretty much a foregone conclusion, right?

I mean, we're going to have to put up with the media circus for another 11 months, but this is pretty much inevitable.

There's no way that the Democratic Party Establishment is ever going to let Bernie Sanders get the nomination, and so Hillary's nomination is inevitable.

And what in the world is happening over at the Republican Party?  They're self-destructing right before our eyes.
There's no way any of these guys could possibly win in a general election.

I mean, seriously, what is happening?  Has there ever been a point in history where one of the two major political parties has been in such disarray?  (I guess maybe if you go back to the dissolution of the Whig party, or something like that.  But certainly nothing within living memory, right?)  I can't imagine what future historians are going to write about this whole debacle in 50 years' time.

However, before I as a liberal get too smug about this whole thing, I need to concede three obvious points:
1). The fact that half of the political power in America has gone this crazy is nothing to feel smug about--it should be something that scares us.
2). Although the Republicans are paralyzed in their presidential election bid, they have been doing quite well in congressional and state elections.
3). This is as much about the failure of the Left as it is about the failure of the Right.  With the American Right disintegrating into craziness, the American Left should have been an attractive alternative to people.  But it's been failing to make any ground.

As for Hillary...
As someone who has been - critical of Hillary in the past, I of course have mixed feelings about her election.  But let's face it....it could have been much, much, much worse.  As someone once said, there are two political parties in America, the sane business party, and the insane business party.  If we do have to be ruled by the business interests, we might as well have the sane party doing it.

Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky on Power and Ideology