MERCHANTS OF FEAR

"THE SILENT MAJORITY?!"

      Now comes the time to assess the FEEL of the political landscape as indicated by the spirit of the conventions of the two main political parties. There is a divide between Americans. But it is not a divide between Liberals and Conservatives or even really between Republicans and Democrats. It is between the elite intellectual and diverse status quo and the anti-elite anti-establishment and homogeneous revolt.  It has gotten ugly, as everybody knows. But it's a new ugly. If you put it kindly, it is a French Revolution ugly rather than a Tea Party ugly or even a Red Scare ugly.

 If you do not put it kindly, it is a Nuremberg Beer Hall Putsch ugly.

Both political conventions have had this divide.

The Democrats in Philadelphia had the hard core Bernie-ites who were given a bit more venting room but did not take over. In fact, either by their absence and/or their mollification because they helped dictate planks to the Democratic Party Platform, the more violent extremes of the Bernies was not in evidence. Because of this
the FEEL of the Democratic National Convention now seems to be mostly like this:

Even Elizabeth Warren has toned herself down. And Bernie himself is playing Rodney King. "Can't we all just get along?"

The Republican Convention quashed the elites under the Trumpite jackboots. So, even though on the outside sanity reigned in Cleveland, Ohio, on this inside the FEEL of the Republican Convention is this:

"Be afraid. Be very afraid," opined NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.  And people are. And my worry is that the polls that say that Hillary is ahead do not factor in this angry "silent majority" that has fueled the howls and screams inside the Q at the RNC, these people disaffected by the economy and fearful from the shootings of cops and the terrorist attacks and the sense that little brown hordes are storming our southern borders to rape us and drug out our children. These are akin to the Brexit folks in England and I have the feeling there are a lot of them out there.

I polled my students a few months ago at Cuyahoga Community College and at John Carroll. I asked them- if the election were today, who would you elect as President? At Tri-c Trump was the overwhelming choice, though one older female student voted for Cruz and three younger women voted for Bernie. Only one, a Hispanic woman, voted for Hillary. At John Carroll the favorite among the boys was Trump and among the girls was Bernie. No Hillary at all here. The John Carroll group were all college age. The Tri-c group were often older, and generally poorer adults. In both instances the strongest showing was for Trump.

And so it goes...