But if you remove The Donald, and then gaze at the Republican
alternatives, the prospect of The Donald improves by comparison.
A Donaldless world is more disturbing than The Donald is.
For instance, even though he's obviously a con man, a rip-off artist
and thin-skinned egomaniac with zero interest in sane policy -- Ted
Cruz is worse. He's LOTS worse.
Even though The Donald's iconic, and a lightning rod for polarized
anxieties, Sarah Palin is worse at that activity than The Donald
is. Sure, Sarah's considered a lunatic now, but The Sarah could
have been vice president, and maybe even President. Yes, her, that
poor, deluded, blowhard creature. For a woman with rural rootsy
affinities whose motto is "Faith, Family and Flag," Sarah's pious,
right-to-lifer family is more soap-opera-broken even than The
Donald's bizarre family.
Paul Ryan, the current Speaker of the House, is, as far as I can
figure, the only guy in the Republican Party with a coherent
legislative agenda, other than looting. But the guy's a Tea Party
fanatic. His ambitions are eye-blindingly radical, but, well, Ryan
could also easily have been Vice President, and President.
However bad Ryan's gonna get in 2017, consider that he could have
been that bad years ago. Also, consider that the absence of The
Donald would probably empower Ryan vastly.
People worse than The Donald have been circling the Oval Office for
years and years now.
...
An extensively bad scene with deep roots in years of development.
Even though The Donald is ludicrously disastrous, he's not some lone
Frankenstein creature. He's part of the general texture of American
rot. A society this extensively troubled, for such a long time,
should probably shouldn't be pitying itself for electing a Donald.
Better if it somehow finds the courage to confront its own deep
inner Donaldness.