This essay will offer no earth shattering insights, simply a wry shake of the head at how invincibly stupid, smug, and elitist the Clinton campaign is. The field is tightening and at this exact moment, HRC decides to repeat the strategy that made numbers of Bernie Sanders supporters recoil permanently from her candidacy; instead of disparaging and disagreeing with the opponant and his stances, she makes personal attacks against the character of his supporters. That'll win them over, right?

I'd love to know who within her inner circle thought and continues to think that stigmatizing supporters of another candidate, is the way to increase her own numbers. Sanders supporters were painted as liberal, white male elitists who also, by the way, were racists and sexists who didn't care about Black Lives Matters and were trying to keep Hillary off the diner placemats as the first female POTUS.

Now, Hillary Clinton shifts her focus and declares half of Trump supporters are "deplorable" and irredeemable racist, sexist, bigoted xenophobes. I understand why she and her campaign would emphasize that conclusion, since what is left unsaid is harder to digest - the other half of his electorate finds Hillary Clinton so unpalatable that a Donald Trump is seen as a viable alternative. How bad a candidate does one have to be for that to occur? I think any other Democrat not bogged under and crushed by Clinton baggage would be winning in a runaway.

IMO Donald Trump is a symptom of American nihilism and disgust with our current system and the status quo. He is both the triumph and disgrace of real American Democracy. As the Republican Party heads keep explaining - "he won fair and square" and got the most votes. The view of the average American voter about their system and their politicians has fallen so far that many of them honestly believe that almost anyone plucked from without the system will do a better job. I can't understand the astonishment of the establishment when we have the examples of Arnold Schwartzenegger and Jesse Ventura who were elected as the top executives in two very different states based entirely on a celebrity factor and as exemplars of deviation from business as usual. Donald Trump also represents a rejection of the political correctness in place for decades where real bigotry and xenophobia were thankfully suppressed, at least publicly, by polite society. The most malevolent aspect of Trump is his opening a Pandora's box and giving some percentage of the populace permission to hate openly and non-apologetically.

I personally hold the Democrats responsible for the rise of Trump. The Democrats rejected the machinery of real democracy from the getgo of their primary race. The elites within the Party played cajoling supplicants writing letters in support of a Clinton candidacy (it's her turn!), the super delegates were all lined up to declare victory before the first ballot was cast, and the field was cleared for the pre-determined outcome. In effect, the Democratic Party ran the most undemocratic primary in my lifetime, and basically told their voters that showing up at the polls was a mere formality, they got this. And yet, because one guy bucked the coronation, rank and file Democrats got to at least pretend that their votes mattered, although the anointment preceded as scheduled.

So here we are. Two herds of lemmings racing towards facing cliffs. One herd is "I'm Not Him" and the other herd is "I'm Not Her". Whoever wins the election will face the most schismed population ever and will be the subject and object of conflict, debates, hearings, and press coverage the likes of which we have never seen. What a world. There will be a loser and a winner among the two candidates. The American public is the loser in both scenarios.