inessential by Brent Simmons

The Hillary Landslide

If Trump wins the nomination — which is more likely every day — then Hillary Clinton could win all 50 states.

Democrats might gain both houses of Congress, because the presidential candidate has an effect on Congressional and even state and local races.

As a Democrat, I should be ecstatic at the thought of such a landslide. But I’m not.

* * *

I’m not ecstatic because I’m an American.

In modern times both parties have nominated some awful people, but none so extreme that they’d fit better as a National Front candidate.

Think about how other nations and people around the world would see us then. Think about how we’d see ourselves.

Even if he loses big — the biggest and best loss ever — there’s no going back. We will be a nation where one of the two major parties nominated the favorite candidate of white supremacists.

If you’re a Democrat, you might blame them, those Republicans, for this. But that’s not right: it’s the fault of the entire American people.

* * *

Same thing holds for Ted Cruz.

(“Lady Nixon,” I heard him called. Which is completely unfair to ladies and to Nixon.)