The reactionary guide to politics: The day Donald Trump won the 2016 presidency

February 27, 2016

I’m (Not) With Her

• It’s goddamn impossible to know what the final score is going to read, but as I write this Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 76.5% to 22.9% in the South Carolina primary. A landslide win was expected for the Clinton campaign, but I really didn’t expect for it to be so lopsided.

• This is Hillary’s second consecutive state win, and third out of four if we take into account her statistical tie with Bernie in Iowa. What once seemed like substantial momentum brewing in the Sanders campaign — pulling an upset in Iowa and dominating his neighboring New Hampshire — ends tonight in South Carolina with a thud.

• I’d say what’s more troubling is, again, just how one-sided the voting was. South Carolina, in particular, has a large black population (accounting as the majority of Democratic voters in the state), but as the race moves further South on Super Tuesday the trend is likely to continue.

• Which is doom for Bernie Sanders.

• It’s also going to be doom for the Democratic party in November’s general election. I’m on record multiple times saying that, whether it’s Hillary or Bernie, a Democrat will be the next president.

• I’m less convinced by that each day. And it’s directly and specifically tied to Bernie’s decline, Hillary’s ascension, and the rise of The Donald Trump Party.

• Yes, despite Hillary Clinton’s stranglehold on the Democratic nomination, she is far less likely to win in a general election than Bernie Sanders. From the Current Affairs article:

Here, a Clinton match-up is highly likely to be an unmitigated electoral disaster, whereas a Sanders candidacy stands a far better chance. Every one of Clinton’s (considerable) weaknesses plays to every one of Trump’s strengths, whereas every one of Trump’s (few) weaknesses plays to every one of Sanders’s strengths. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, running Clinton against Trump is a disastrous, suicidal proposition.

• This is where we are.

• Americans aren’t very bright. 20% of Trump supporters in South Carolina were against the Emancipation Proclamation. Welcome to the underbelly of the New America.

• If people were voting with their interests, at least the majority, there would be only one candidate. Instead, it’s a choice between 8 more years of Obama, 4 years of who the hell knows what, and actual change. America needs actual change. But it doesn’t appear likely to get it.

• As a Bernie supporter, we have only Super Tuesday to cling to. That, or maybe a Hillary indictment. (We can dream, can’t we?)