A Republic, Ma'am, If you can keep it.

Legend has it when Ben Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked him what sort of government the men inside had given the people, and Franklin said, "A Republic, Ma'am, if you can keep it."

And that has been the rub, ever since.  The founding fathers rigged the political system, which, in turn, rigged the economic system, and we have had the best Congress money can buy ever since.

These men, plantation owners from the South, wealthy businessmen, like John Hancock, from the North looked around at the rabble who were their countrymen and grew faint hearted about the prospect of the common man trying to govern himself and his neighbors. 

There was no such thing as public education then.

Over the ensuing centuries the verdict on the intelligence of the American public has not changed much--as H.L. Mencken said, "No one every went broke under estimating the intelligence of the American public."

The fact is, people are often smart in their own worlds, as engineers, lawyers, doctors, construction workers, cab drivers, but they are at sea without a sextant outside of their own worlds.  

So, in 2010, having elected President Obama, they turned on him and blamed him for the financial crisis. They blamed Obama and his party, not Wall Street, not George W. Bush.  

And the T Party was right there to capitalize on that and for the next 6 years the American voters in Kentucky gave us Mitch McConnell. These are the same voters who say they love Kynect, Kentucky's Obamacare, but they hate Obamacare. In Alabama they hate the federal government and they want the feds to keep their government hands off Medicare.  In Mississippi, they hate the federal government but they sho do love those government defense contracts without which they would have no economy.  And Kansas!  Yikes, don't even talk to me about Kansas.  Too much wind through the brain out there in the wasteland. They see beheadings on TV and they blame Obama, because he's the President after all, he should be able to stop that.

Watch a Donald Trump rally and you lose faith in the American public.  If they cannot see through this guy, do these voters deserve a Republic? 

I actually do not think Donald Trump is as evil as my Democratic friends here in Hampton do.  Ted Cruz, yes, that guy is loathsome.  But the Donald is too ridiculous to be scary.  He is Bart Simpson running for President.  

If Homer and Marge could see me now!

Trump has written no Mein Kampf  screed because he's really not interested in much beyond himself and his own reflection and his beautiful wife and children. He doesn't hate Muslims because he has no idea who Muslims are--they're just some people he's seen on TV before he lost interest in them.  As far as I know, while there may be some Muslim neighborhoods around Detroit and a few other places, for the most part American Muslims are so thoroughly integrated and woven into the American fabric, you are hardly aware they are even Muslim, until you to go to a wedding. They are doctors and teachers and cab drivers, doing no harm; actually, doing this country a world of good, for the most part.

As for those Mexican rapists streaming across the border, all Trump knows is he doesn't like those Mexicans but he likes the Hispanics who build his buildings for him, just the way most developers love those Hispanic workers who are very good workers. 

Of course, like Spiro Agnew and many others before him, Trump has given the worst haters among us permission to voice their nasty thoughts.  Hitler was not a magician; he needed Hess and Goebbels  and Speer and that whole vile crowd around him to do his damage. 

Hitler was a serious man, in the sense he had theory and he laid plans to execute it.

Trump has no theory.  He's barely even thought about the answer to the next question.  Abortion?  Haven't given it much thought. Yeah, sure, punish the woman but not the man.  Using nukes against ISIS? Sure, why not? Unless, of course, they'd be willing to come negotiate with me. Then we'll make them build a wall and stay behind it and whatever they want to do in that little hell hole of a country they make in the desert, that's their problem. 

In fact the only thing which he seems to stay focused on is Megyn Kelly, and even there, you figure it's just an adolescent crush. She gives me a hard time because, deep down--she doesn't want to admit it--she has the hots for me.

The Donald's real abiding interest

I have bigger things to worry about than the Donald. What if Bernie wins the nomination then has a heart attack?  What if Hillary wins and has a heart attack?

Things happen.