As for elephant dung, both parties are knee deep in the stuff. The big one in the room which the Rethugs are studiously not seeing is the values, attitudes and beliefs of American women. From "The Daddy Party", the Rs seem to have morphed into the Lecherous Old Men Party. The ideal of American womanhood portrayed by this generation's Republican Party is...Barbie Doll. We have Diplomat Barbie at the UN, Presidential Advisor Barbie in the WH, and a slew of News Anchor and Reporter Barbies at Fox.

Against all expectations--the Left doesn't do memes, sneer the chans--in the field of popular archetypes, the Dims got something right. Against the Lecherous Old Men and their pet Barbies, the Dems ran...Nancy Drew. Bright, energetic, capable, successful, personable women of just about every possible hue, ethnicity and sexuality won election after election last Tuesday. Something like about 99 of them won House seats, and that is not even talking about state legislatures. Clearly, the Rs did not know how to run against them. Do oppo research on one of these women and you will not find drunk driving arrests, drug abuse or alcohol parties that got out of hand, nor sexual harassment complaints. They don't seem to be involved in questionable business dealings with shadowy Mideast arms dealers or Russian mobsters, and they don't embarrass themselves or their supporters when they think they are off camera.

For the Dims, the big elephant being deliberately ignored was of course foreign policy, and the reality that the Americans are sick unto death of foreign wars and military interventions. And the Dims have the holy nerve to accuse other people of being in denial! I can't help but think that a strong anti-war, anti-intervention statement from Beto would have put him over the top. OK, in Texas maybe not, but anti-war is a winning theme that the Dems. won't touch.

Warning: the rest of this essay is sheer speculation.

I would like to suggest that there what are called tipping points in our public life which maybe at the time they happen seem less consequential than they prove to be. One such tipping point was the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Not because of racism, even though that was a factor, but because, night after night, working class Americans saw, right there on camera, highly paid "professionals" doing their jobs at a level of incompetence which would get a working stiff fired. I think that trial marked the beginning of the end of working stiffs having respect and deference for their soi-dissant betters.

So, I find myself wondering if the Monsanto trial this last August will not also prove to be a bit of a watershed. For Monsatan apologists there is nowhere left to hide. Glyphosate, the flagship product, is incontrovertibly revealed to be a cancer causing chemical, more dangerous IMHO, than DDT. Since the verdict and award were handed down by a unanimous, mostly white I might add, jury and read out by a dismayed and hostile judge, there have been further developments. Monsatan, naturally, believes itself to be above petty constraints like jury trials, and lost no time petitioning the judge to overturn the verdict. Huh??? I mean, why do we even have courts? The judge announced that she might just do that and was greeted with a storm of protest, not least from jurors who quite rightly felt themselves insulted. More than a few of them came forward, wrote letters, posted on social media, gave interviews, etc., had no fear of making their identities known, and the judge, who would seem to be not immune to public pressure, contented herself with reducing the damage award.

Now, if Mr. Johnson, the African American plaintiff, had been shot by a cop, there would be people out in the streets all over the West Coast. But, he wasn't shot. He was condemned to a lingering, painful death because, following instructions of his employer, the Benicia School District, where he was a groundskeeper, he made extensive use of Roundup, a chemical product made and distributed by Monsanto. Maybe I am missing something, but the sound of silence from the usual social justice advocates has been deafening. Nor is this the first time the SJW contingent have been MIA where Monsatan is concerned. I cannot help thinking that strong statements by national civil rights advocates and organizations would have influenced the judge to do her duty and deny Monsatan's outrageous petitions. Here is one instance where the "What if...?" question should have been asked.

So, what has all of this to do with the CA senate election? OK, here is where this essay gets very speculative, and I can only give my own thoughts and state what I would have done.

If I were still living and voting in CA, I would have voted for Mr. de Leon if the election had been held before August 10, 2018. After August 10, 2018, I would have voted either for the Green party candidate if there had been one or for no one for the position of Senator from California. What I do not and cannot know is how many other voters, white voters in particular, feel the same way.

People like me are what I think of as the odd ball vote, an admittedly small segment of the white electorate, the organic gardeners, the birdwatchers, rock hounds, bookworms, library addicts, the small time intelligentsia. Contrary to popular report, we are most of us neither racist nor privileged, we do vote, and we are quite willing to vote for non-white candidates, not least because non-white candidates are often far more impressive than their opponents. And I believe I can say that all of us hate Monsanto about three times more than you readers hate T-rump. The Orange Menace is just a person, Adolf or Uncle Joe he ain't, and will be gone in 2 or 6 years. As far as I am concerned, starting now, if I don't see a strong anti-war plank in your platform AND an anti GMO. anti Monsanto statement, you don't, in most circumstances, get my vote. I vote Green or I leave the line for your race blank.

IDK if candidates like Mr. de Leon can afford to do without the votes of persons like me. Maybe they can. But what I do know is that de Leon lost by a lot more than he should have, and if I were a political strategist, I would be looking very closely at that Senate race.