I have listened and watched, for the past few days, to the Sanders and Clinton Democratic camps cover themselves in qualification armor and snipe from bunkers laden with hyperbolic foot soldiers.
Hillary Clinton failed to emphatically shut down an obvious attempt by Joe Scarborough, of MSNBC, to have her in effect declare Bernie Sanders ineligible, by simply answering the question, of Mr. Sanders’ readiness for office, with an unequivocal, YES! Senator Sanders responded by ‘air quoting’ an erroneous report from print reporting and CNN, accusing Mrs. Clinton of saying, he was not qualified. What has been lost in this argument is that the real unqualified candidates reside in the heart of the Republican Party. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior voice in the Republican Party, said without reservation that the choice between Cruz and Trump is like choosing between being shot or poisoned. That should settle the question.
Not only are the two leading candidates for the Republican nomination unqualified so is the Party and its followers for even considering the possibility. Donald Trump, who has never held public office and is barely literate on domestic or foreign policy, is peddling world nuclear proliferation as an option for peace and Ted Cruz, a junior Senator from Texas, who is roundly disliked by even his own Party, wants to shut down entrance into America and bomb anything called, the Middle East. That would be the result of ignorance to policy and carpet bombing, indiscriminate killing. Both want penalties for women, facilities and doctors who violate their utopia of controlling a woman’s right to choose.
Meanwhile we have Bernie Sanders, a thirty year experienced politician who has been a mayor and Senator and has fought the good fight of public fairness in both racial justice and income inequity. The other nominee, Hillary Clinton has fought for justice for women around the globe, championed equal pay legislation and the smashing of the glass ceiling, been a Senator from New York and Secretary of State. Both support a woman’s right to choose. If you had just arrived from Mars, there would be no question what two candidates would garner your interest as serious people.
This so-called fight between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders has been the recipe of politics for hundreds of years and has taken place since the installation of George Washington; opposition research, sprinkled with a few lies and garnished with poor journalism. The prize is the White House, not winning an argument with specious and petty bickering over an indisputable truth. Both Senator Bernard Sanders and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton are eminently qualified and one of them should be occupying the White House in January of 2017. Voting is an honor and a right, don’t squander it.
