Anchor Struck

I first entered an American polling booth in 1952, when my mother took me along as she voted for Eisenhower.  I’ve kept up with U.S. politics ever since, and I’ve never seen a presidential debate anywhere near as appalling as the GOP’s most recent one.  It seemed like a sketch that SNL would reject as too juvenile.  I kept waiting for someone to say “Mister Poopypants”.

Marco Rubio questioned Trump’s bladder control.  The Donald eschewed all substantive issues to assure a concerned nation that he was, in fact, well-hung.  Ted Cruz checked in from his alternate universe sporadically to say stuff.  And John Kasich did as little as possible so as not to draw any attention to himself.

I admit I only watched highlights, because I have enough problems with heartburn as it is.  But I watched all the CNN analysis.  That’s why I’m now officially panicked about the course of global history.  Gloria Borger is also worried about the precipitous drop in civility.

For many years Borger has been one of our most rational observers of the political landscape.  If I understood her and similarly-thoughtful pundit David Gergen correctly, we are witnessing nothing less than a total make0ver of the GOP.

Every U.S. presidential campaign is touted as the most significant ever.  That’s because hype supersedes (I wanted to use the verb “trumps”, but he’s ruined that, too) substance in American politics.  Each campaign does, however, have a unique importance.  This one is shaping up as the one when a major party with a storied history lost its relevancy.

I draw no glee from watching the mainstream Republicans scramble to break Trump Fever, but they have no one to blame but themselves.  They have squandered the political capital Reagan racked up.  Even as they fondly, though inaccurately, reminisce about the Gipper’s golden era, they have devolved into a snake pit of barely-disguised racism, homespun homophobia and ghastly misogyny.

Like a glassy-eyed Trump supporter, they are impervious to external critique.  They’ve even ignored their own “autopsy” from  the 2012 election.  Now their front runner is fine with shutting down mosques, waterboarding prisoners and beating up protesters.  His followers, recent fans of the U.S. Constitution, are fine with him disregarding it.  Welcome back to Death Valley Days, Reagan’s last acting gig before he went on to sainthood.