I will be using a different map next week. The ends of the two Conventions begin the real races for President, showing whether the nominees of the Democratic and Republican Parties have defined themselves and vilified the other side successfully. Convention speeches establish the themes of the race. As I see it, in a two-way race my current map fails to distinguish a spread of 49-36 from one of 41-36. In a binary race I have a cause for a distinction between a race in which one of the nominees is over 45%, both are over 45%, or neither is. Mass advertising begins next week based upon promises and doubts raised in the Party conventions. Should Johnson prove relevant I will accommodate him. Old maps may become irrelevant.
Republicans have tried to depict Hillary Clinton as shady; Democrats are trying to depict Donald Trump as a dangerous extremist whose experience has no relevance to governing America. The themes are set, and new themes are unlikely.
It is remarkable that in his speech last night President Obama excoriated together fascists, communists, jihadis, and home-grown demagogues, the latter implying Donald Trump. This takes swipes at totalitarian causes of the past (the first two), today (a better definition than "radical Islam", as solutions to violent movements in Islam may be newer currents of Islam that contain some radical elements), and our own home-grown extremists who would tear down the decencies of our heritage for their own radical agendas.
Republicans are still stuck on the questionable issue of whether President Obama is a genuine American. With less than half a year in this Presidential term, such is now ludicrously irrelevant as well as unfounded. They should have ditched this issue long ago... but when the faction with the greatest contempt for reason gets hold of the Party that is what one gets. Democrats have a better slogan "Stronger Together" than the vacuous "Make America Great Again". We are all in this Crisis Era together, or this Crisis may do great harm to America.
Republicans have tried to depict Hillary Clinton as shady; Democrats are trying to depict Donald Trump as a dangerous extremist whose experience has no relevance to governing America. The themes are set, and new themes are unlikely.
It is remarkable that in his speech last night President Obama excoriated together fascists, communists, jihadis, and home-grown demagogues, the latter implying Donald Trump. This takes swipes at totalitarian causes of the past (the first two), today (a better definition than "radical Islam", as solutions to violent movements in Islam may be newer currents of Islam that contain some radical elements), and our own home-grown extremists who would tear down the decencies of our heritage for their own radical agendas.
Republicans are still stuck on the questionable issue of whether President Obama is a genuine American. With less than half a year in this Presidential term, such is now ludicrously irrelevant as well as unfounded. They should have ditched this issue long ago... but when the faction with the greatest contempt for reason gets hold of the Party that is what one gets. Democrats have a better slogan "Stronger Together" than the vacuous "Make America Great Again". We are all in this Crisis Era together, or this Crisis may do great harm to America.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.