Cruz might have gotten the nomination. So we still have a chance to get out of this alive.
No one can predict the future, but Trump has managed to confound our expectations and theories about him up to now, and as RL points out, a lot of disasters (real, exaggerated or completely manufactured) could befall the Clinton candidacy between now and November. I certainly can’t predict the future, don’t ask me to assign a numerical probability to it. But there is still a very good possibility Donald Trump might become our next president.
He has managed to tap into the great underground river of American middle class fear and disappointment: they have finally started to realize they have been systematically lied to and exploited for generations, times are rough and they are being stuck with the check. Now they are really pissed off and looking for scapegoats, and there is never any shortage of those. Unfortunately, its not likely they will realize just WHO has lied to and exploited them before the elections, and who walked out on the bill. The leaders and theorists of the Republican Party have managed to create a narrative that deftly shifts the blame to the poor, the immigrants, the colored, the Democrats and some ill-defined conspiracy theory called the Liberal Elite. But that same Frankenstein monster of displaced expectations is now coming home (like the proverbial chickens) to roost, and this is a tsunami that may well sweep those leaders and theorists away as well. The TParty now sees little difference between the two major political parties. At least, they seem to have gotten that part right.
We’ve seen this coming since we were youngsters, since the 1960s. I will admit, we didn’t foresee exactly how things would shake out, we did not predict the details or the scenario. We saw it coming, but we couldn’t see just how it would manifest itself. “Play the game by the rules, keep your nose clean and work hard, and everything will work out”, they said. But they lied, and we know they lied, and they know we know they lied. Its been pretty clear to everyone who didn’t buy into the program from the start that America, for all its potential, has always promised more than it could deliver.
For a very few, the promise and possibility of freedom, justice, prosperity and security was never enough. They wanted it all. Now the coffee has been served, the cordials have been toasted, the dessert dishes carried away and the cigars are being lit. But the gluttons at the head of the table have walked out on the bill just when it was time to pay up. The hippies were right after all.