In this brief cessation of hostilities between enemy forces on both sides of the political divide, it is a good time to take stock of where primary voters have taken the two parties.
Real estate magnate and political neophyte Donald Trump is on the cusp of truly revolutionizing the Republican Party. He has slain the establishment GOP and awakened long-dormant voters dissatisfied with everything Washington and its politicians have been up to for decades.
Over halfway through the nomination process, Mr. Trump stands to walk into the Republican Convention in Cleveland with a sizable plurality — if not an outright majority — of votes from primary voters. It will be his first priority to unify the party around him, the new king of the Grand Old Party.
Across the aisle, Washington’s longtime political gadfly, Sen. Bernard Sanders, is on fire with elite Democratic voters. By that, of course, we mean elderly white professors, united with out-of-work young “progressives.” And by “progressive,” of course, we mean those who support utterly regressive totalitarian regimes led by great “progressives” such as Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara.
Funnily enough, Mr. Sanders insists on describing himself as a “democratic socialist.” Why he insists on repeating himself I cannot tell you.
Anyway, the media is all agog over finding comparisons between the Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders.
It is true, both candidates have their highly enthusiastic supporters. But that should hardly be unique in politics. Only the rarest of political candidates are able to inspire the kind of apathy spawned by Mitt Romney, Jeb! Bush and Hillary Clinton.
Also, supporters of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders share a few policy positions such as distrust of global trade. But even in that, there are differences. Trump supporters lament the loss of jobs they would like to work while Sanders supporters have never actually worked a job outside of academia or maybe as a part-time barista at the campus Starbucks.
The truth is, Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders could hardly be more different from one another.
Mr. Trump’s entire campaign is that of a highly disruptive outsider. Sure, he is not the conservative firebrand many Republicans would like. But, really, who can you most likely imagine actually abolishing the federal Department of Education and firing all those bureaucrats?
And every new day, Mr. Trump shocks the Washington political garden party by insisting that, yes, he really does intended to build that wall and, no, he is not kidding when he says Mexico will pay for it.
Mr. Sanders, meanwhile, is a deeply entrenched barnacle of the Washington establishment and federal bureaucracy. He has, last I checked, been in Congress for 573 years, first as a member of the House and now the Senate.
His greatest (only) accomplishment was “reforming” the Veterans Affairs Department. Truly, its never been the same ever since.
Just ask any wounded vet how great that bureaucratic overhaul by the King of Bureaucracy has worked out. I can think of another 2,000 vets you might ask, but they have all committed suicide waiting for the VA to help them.
Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com. Follow him on Twitter at @charleshurt.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.