A Dreary Monday

Back in Nashville this morning, where it’s raining cats and dogs, my thoughts on the past week of national politics are as dreary as the view outside my window.

I have good friends who are fighting the Good Fight. Every day they are either going door to door on behalf of one or another candidate for president, or helping new voters know how to get ready. (The Tennessee primary and the rest of Super Tuesday are just three weeks away now.) But one can be forgiven on this wet Monday morning for admitting to a feeling of despair, wondering when the sun will shine.

Take the Iowa Democratic caucuses of last week. 

It’s hard to grasp the entirety of what ails the national Democratic Party now, let alone to have any clarity on how one candidate will find a way to unity ahead of the general election in November. This morning it is especially baffling why the DNC does not insist on a wholesale re-structuring of how its nominees are selected. Members of the big Executive Committee seem more interested in packing for a festive national convention, like in the old days. They seem trapped in delusion.

You might say the Republicans should do the same – so unrepresentative of America are Iowa and New Hampshire – but Republicans figure the 2020 game is over already. Why upset the apple cart? As with the so-called “Impeachment Trial” they know, especially now, that the fix is in.

I have written before that if there’s one organization in our nation capable of blowing what ought to be a golden political opportunity, it is the Democrats in their “transparent” apparatus. I offer that thought again this morning.

Then consider Trump’s State of the Union speech, and what it foretells of the incumbent’s campaign through the summer and fall..

I found much of the speech troubling – as to facts and the actual record of his regime – but even I will admit he delivered a powerful, masterful political message, using all the tools at a President’s disposal.

Any Democrat who denies its effect on U.S. voters is sadly in denial.

May the weather, and my mood, improve soon.