USA Election: This election isn’t just Democrat vs. Republican. It’s normal vs. abnormal
The conventions held at Cleveland and Philadelphia showed that this is something different and defies a moment where our normal understanding of political system, of a split between the two major political beliefs. When we speak of of American politics, It’s Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, left versus right.
This year’s USA Presidential Election, is different. Its more fundamental: Its between a normal political party that has nominated a normal presidential candidate, and the abnormal political party with a abnormal presidential candidate.
The DNC was a normal political party’s convention which nominated Hillary Clinton, a longtime party member with deep experience in government. Clinton was endorsed by Bernie Sanders- the runner-up in the primary and Barack Obama, the sitting president. Various Democratic luminaries gave speeches endorsing Clinton by name and criticized the other party’s nominee. Not those divisions didn’t exist, they did as in any Political party.
Republicans held an abnormal convention and nominated an abnormal candidate, Donald Trump, a new member with literally no experience in government. Ted Cruz, the runner-up in the primary, refused to endorse Trump in his primetime speech, and instead told Americans to “vote your conscience.”
“Couldn’t have said it better!” —David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, on Donald Trump’s RNC speech https://t.co/nt355hYBQb
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) July 24, 2016
The prospective first lady’s speech had a plagiarized passage from the Democratic Party’s first lady. Trump surprisingly missed the first night of his own convention by doing a phone interview with Fox News and an hour-long discussion with the Golf Channel.
He distracted his running mate’s acceptance speech, when told of his intention of, him not wanting to automatically honor America’s commitments under NATO treaty.
Trump’s speech was enthusiastically endorsed by David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. “Couldn’t have said it better,” he tweeted.
His Self destructive behavior didn’t end with the convention. The next day, Trump goes to press stating, Ted Cruz’s father was likely involved in the JFK Assassination plot and swore he wouldn’t accept Cruz’s endorsement even if it were offered, and argued that the National Enquirer deserved a Pulitzer Prize.
Trump has been critizied by his own party for racist comments, attacks on the judiciary, undermining the NATO alliance, for inviting foreign governments to meddle in American elections just hours after his running mate, Mike Pence, had warned of “serious consequences” if Russia truly was behind the DNC hack.
This election puts Republicans in a hard position. It was never a between a normal candidate and an abnormal one, it’s also between a liberal candidate and a, well, conservative one.
Michael Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York City, put it simply in a speech endorsing Clinton. “Together, let’s elect a sane, competent person, This is not a man with the temperament, the steadiness, or the discipline to be president”.
Should he win, we have no idea of the democratic boundaries he would respect, the conspiracy theories he would believe, which political enemies he would punish, which of the treaties would be honored. None of this is okay. None of it is normal. Donald Trump is an abnormal political candidate
From nation governed by norms, not by just laws. Our political parties are expected to hold, certain standards in terms of the candidates they nominate, the behaviors they accept, the ideas they mainstream. Trump violates those standards. By indulging him, the Republican Party is normalizing him and his behavior, and made itself abnormal.
It would take a long time for the Republicans to undo the damages done by their choice of a presidential nominee
This election isn’t just Democrat vs. Republican. It’s normal vs. abnormal
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