A reprieve for Republicans

I come by this aspiration honestly,
having been indentured to lick pos-
tage stamps for Party literature as
a child, for a Senator campaigning
for re-election as a Republican in
California - little suspecting much
of anything would come from it, a-
part from a maternal donation to my
piggy bank. Who could know, my home-
land would furnish the driving vit-
riol of the Party's collapse into
Nixonian cynicism, Reaganite hallu-
cination, Birch Society paranoia, 
and all nine yards of strip-mall
pseudo-Christianity? Back then, we
were simply post-War imperialists,
extending the mantle of corruption
to every regime we could patronise.

So one does owe the GOP a flick of
compassion in any wave of a hanky
to its misplayed game this season.

1. The Republican Party has been
snookered into a box which certain-
ly will cost it dearly in House and
Senate races this year, if it pro-
ceeds to extend nomination for the
Presidency to Mr Donald Trump, who
would not fare well in that effort
and who, it is plausibly feared,
would diminish the Party's immacu-
late reputation for the qualities
cited above. This would be adverse.

2. Therefore, by what blindness do
the Republicans even contemplate
proceeding down that path, if not
extending the nomination to Trump
could spare its name and a handful,
at least, of its incumbents? By the
blindness of habit.

3. The solution, staring the Party
in the face, is for the Convention
in Cleveland to be called to order,
for the chair to recognize a dele-
gate who will rise to propose, "Mr
Chairman, I move we adjourn," for
a second to be requested, and for
a show of hands to register, that
the Convention had concluded its
business for this quadrennium. A
gavel's as good as a balloon-drop.

Who could believe, that any Par-
ty would create by-laws for itself,
obliging it to nominate a candid-
ate for the Presidency? In a situ-
ation where catastrophe is assured,
why not avoid the situation? Ah, 
"our pimped Federal Judiciary,"
you say, "our casuistry caucus on
the 'Citizens United' Bench." Yes,
but the way to be sure of sustain-
ing the partisan pollution of jur-
isprudence, is to protect a posi-
tion in the Senate, sufficient to
block appointments. Why fritter
that away, to ornament the loss
in a Presidential fiasco?

Just sayin'. I think as well of
Cleveland, Ohio, as the next man,
but I wouldn't want to write home
to say, I spent my Summer vaca-
tion anywhere near Donald Trump.

Why do anything to grant a vic-
tory, to the mendicant of the
Electoral College's largesse?
And take the long view: short-
sighted wars are certain to be
resumed, without your signature.
Why costume the unthinkable in
the garb of legitimacy? Why go
down in history as enabling a
sordid Presidency, by proposing
an impossible one? Take 4 years
off, tidy up a few prospects, 
and run the tables in 2020.

But, that's it, GOP. With this
settlement, I do renounce thee.

Man Ray
undated