I’ve tried to stay quiet on the unfolding political drama in the US over this year’s presidential election.  However, there are some observations that I have made which I have not seen being discussed in the main-stream press, so sharing them here is the only way to be sure that others can think with them.  FYI: I get most of my news from the BBC.

First off – back when Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for the Republican Nomination, the party leadership required all such candidates to publicly take an oath to support whomever the eventual nominee would be.  Donald would have saved himself a lot of headache – and done the voters a massive favor – if he’d taken that pledge to a TV station and asked the party leadership if they would likewise swear to support him if HE was the eventual nominee.  It would have shown the leadership for what was really important to them – control, not loyalty.

Second – some party leadership are now publicly stating that they will support the DEMOCRATIC candidate rather than support Donald Trump.  To me, this indicates fear.  They fear Donald because he’s independently financed, true.  They also fear something that his front-runner status indicates – the power of the will of the voters.  After all, Donald Trump is only the front-runner because voters have supported him.  If he wins the party nomination outright before the convention, it will be voters who handed it to him.  Once again, this is ultimately about control – the party leadership want the power to tell voters what is best for them.  What the party leaders fear above all else is something reminding the voters that they have the power to FORCE change.

Third – this is a historic election, no matter how you toss it around.  First, you have Republican party leadership threatening to specifically back CLINTON if Trump becomes the party nominee.  Second, you have Democrats who are refusing to support Clinton because she isn’t a true liberal (on the grounds that she’s never taken a politically risky position in her career). Finally (on the historic election front) with the presumptive candidates now being Clinton, Sanders, or Trump, we’ve already achieved the point where the November ballot will be a showdown between two New Yorkers.

Fourth – the immigration issue is being used by Republican Leadership as one of the reasons NOT to support Donald Trump.  It is a smoke screen.  If they can keep you focused on this, they can keep you from realizing that immigration reform is all about one thing – giving YOUR jobs to people from another country.  We already have an employment problem in the US.  More than 20% of all people with no education above high school are unemployed – and that is more than 30% of such people who are black, more than 45% of such people who are Hispanic. Among people who did not complete high school, the average unemployment rate is over 50%, and black unemployment is over 90%.  Donald Trump has it right, before we can afford to be generous to people of other countries, we need to put our own people back to work.  We can’t import 1 Million new workers per year while the economy is only creating 200k new jobs.

Seriously people, if you are sick of the political theater being offered for public consumption from Washington, DC, there is only one thing I can advise you to do.  Take a long, hard look at who the leadership of your preferred party DOES NOT WANT TO WIN, and support them completely.  Change doesn’t happen in Washington, it happens at the ballot box.