Trump at the top of the ticket: Let that sink in

Did you see what happened on Tuesday night after it was confirmed Donald Trump would win the Indiana primary? After Texas Senator Ted Crus dropped out of the race, crushing the hopes and dreams of the #nevertrump movement? The Donald — Donald Trump — came out to greet the throngs of fans and well-wishers in the lobby of his hotel, to the strains of “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones.

And then the Stones said, “Kindly stop using our music for your campaign.”

Well, old Mick (Jagger) might not have put it so kindly. At any rate, Mick and the boys told Trump “no bueno” on the use of Rolling Stones music. Which is too bad for news junkies because the Stones have some really good songs. On top of that Adele and Neil Young told him “no bueno” as well, along with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Everlast and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

Stipe was rather pointed about it. “Do not use our music or my voice for your … moronic charade of a campaign.”

The ellipsis is used because it went out in two tweets. Stipe used his bandmate’s Twitter account for the message, which did include an F-bomb, directed at the entire GOP field.

“”Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you–you sad, attention grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for you … dot-dot-dot … moronic charade of a campaign.”–Michael Stipe”

Mike Mills, the bass player in R.E.M., preceded Stipe’s tweets with “Upcoming is Michael’s statement about Trump using our song at the rally. His opinions are HIS, please do not tweet angry responses at me.” Followed after the Stipe tweets with, “Personally, I think the Orange Clown will do anything for attention I hate giving it to him.”

So as Trump marches through popular music, pissing off the ones that are still alive, many of the people in his new political party — taking a moment to let that soak in — are saying they won’t support their new, most likely nominee.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party, has all but anointed Trump, calling him the “presumptive nominee” in a tweet, after Ted Cruz announced the end of his campaign.

Despite that, none of the more famous Bushes: George H.W., George W. and Jeb, all said they would not be supporting him. The two Georges said they won’t be going to the convention.

Ben Howe, the editor the RedState blog, tweeted, “ #imWithHer” followed with “I am a fiscal conservative and I am a social conservative. That will not change. But I will not vote for an egomaniacal authoritarian. Nope.” And then “If you are ‪#NeverTrump then I suggest you accept the implications of what that means. Don’t kid yourself. I’m not.”

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, no wimpy little moderate, tweeted: “Reporters keep asking if Indiana changes anything for me.

“The answer is simple: No.” He added a link to his very controversial Facebook post in which he says he cannot support Donald Trump as the nominee and he would be looking for an acceptable alternative if Trump did indeed wins the nomination. Apparently he’s looking for a third party candidate and many of his colleagues say he’s the guy for the job.

Other Republicans know that with Trump at the top of the ticket — let that sink in for a bit: Trump at the top of the ticket — it will be hard for many of the down-ballot candidates to get elected as droves of Republican voters either stay home or vote for a third party or, as Ben Howe tweeted: #ImWithHer

John McCain’s 2008 campaign manager, Steve Schmidt told an MSNBC audience the Republican voters would have to decide if they love their country more than their party.

The news site Politico got a hold of an audio recording of Arizona Senator John McCain talking candidly about having Trump at the top of the ticket. He said, “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life. If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I’ve never seen in 30 years.”

The Democrats are fooling themselves if they think the November elections will be a cakewalk with Trump leading the GOP. For most of the past year just about everyone, Democrat and Republican alike, has either dismissed Trump or tried to convince the electorate the self-proclaimed billionaire is a joke. As long ago as August that appeared to be a losing strategy. Every time Trump was attacked for what “normal” people would consider major gaffes, his popularity grew. He knows what the GOP base wants to hear and he delivered.

He’s an outsider who has never held political office, has never been in the military and claims to be self-funded. The latter isn’t true of course. He has collected over $13 million in donations so far, but the 10 million-plus people who voted for him either don’t believe that fact or they don’t care if Trump’s claims are untrue.

Many voters when asked by the media if they agree with the egregious things Trump has said, told reporters they disagreed with some of the things Trump said, but they felt he was speaking the truth — in other words he was saying many of the things they wanted to say but couldn’t. Trump was speaking for them and them is mostly white and middle class, people who have taken it in the shorts for the past 35 years and view most poor people and immigrants as the primary reasons why.

People who are disgusted with both parties and view Trump as some sort of humanitarian savior — with a foul mouth.

Trump supporters love it when he tells his security detail to throw protestors out of his events, “Get him outa here!” he says into the microphones and the crowd roars with approval. His supporters echo his insults of other candidates.

On the day before the Indiana primary Ted Cruz tried to speak with Trump supporters who called him “Lyin’ Ted” to his face. Cruz, one of the most melodramatic speakers to come along in a while, likes to use dramatic pauses. The detractors used Cruz’s melodrama against him and the results where hilarious.

Cruz: “America is a better country …” dramatic pause.
Protestor: “Without you.”
Cruz thanked him for his kind sentiments.

Cruz: “And a question that everyone here should ask …” dramatic pause.
Protester somewhere in the crowd: “Are you Canadian?”

Throughout Cruz’s rather brave attempt to win over Trump supporters, you can hear people in the crowd echoing Trump’s insults.
“We don’t want you.”
“Where’s your Goldman Sachs jacket? We know your wife works there.”
“Career politicians ruined America.”

It’s funny now, but this is what’s in store for whoever is at the top of the Democratic ticket, which will most likely be Hillary Clinton. Cruz actually confronted the protestors with facts, quoted from Trump’s various interviews on television and in the written press, only to be called, “Lyin’ Ted.”

After watching this video you might actually feel sorry for Cruz … until you remember he’s Ted Cruz, the most hated man in American politics.

About eight percent of the voting population cast their vote for Trump so far this election cycle. Not much, but in a general election against a woman who has high unfavorable ratings as well, he will do a lot better than eight percent. Especially considering most people view Hillary Clinton as part of the establishment and Donald Trump as an outsider.

Donald Trump isn’t a joke anymore, he’s the presumptive nominee in one of the two major political parties. His nomination may tear the GOP apart at the seams, but Hillary Clinton by no means has a lock on the Oval Office. She still hasn’t put away Senator Bernie Sanders.

Just a word about Sanders: I know he is the favorite of this website’s poll, but he hasn’t got a chance of winning — the nomination or a general election. The word “Socialist” scares too many American voters and on top of that, Sanders hasn’t felt the wrath of opposition research that Clinton has endured for the past 25 years. If Sanders were to become the Democratic nominee, there’s no telling what they would dig up from his past and twist into something sinister or shameful. The GOP has proven in countless elections no trick is too dirty to put in a 30-second TV ad. But I like Bernie. He’s bringing the Democratic Party back to being liberal.

On the other hand, with so many Republicans opposing Trump, the Democrats may not have to do much opposition research and negative campaigning for themselves. The Trump-haters in the GOP have already started attacking their party’s candidate. Let that sink in for a minute: there are long-time members of the Republican Party actively opposing their party’s presumptive nominee. Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House said he isn’t ready to support Trump. The editor of the conservative Washington Times de-registered himself from the GOP.

No doubt about it, 2016 is the most interesting — and entertaining — presidential election of my lifetime. Don’t screw it up, Democrats.

Post Script: I just noticed I had forgotten about Governor John Kasich of Ohio … like the rest of the voting public.