My roommate, a modest conservative, had to endure the sight of me last week going full-fetal on our sofa, hugging a pillow, while I watched Fox News coverage of the Republican National Convention. “Why are you even watching this?” he asked, knowing full well my left-of-center views. “It’s like a train wreck,” I replied. “You just can’t look away.”
Now the cool thing about this particular train wreck is that the train was carrying the circus. For four days, I glued myself to my television and watched Rep. Steve King support white supremacy, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gesticulate himself to death, Melania Trump become immortalized via meme-hood for her copied speech, former candidate Ted Cruz tell people to vote their conscience instead of Trump (when booing, I can only assume Republicans know full well they’re not voting their conscience when they cast a Trump ballot) and, my personal favorite, Laura Ingraham leaving no room for ambiguity with a classy “Sieg Heil.”
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks recently released information that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the rest of the left leadership were planning on sabotaging the Sanders campaign by pressing him on his darkest and most vile secret: his Judaism. To make matters worse, more documents showed federal appointments would be given to big donors to the Democratic National Convention. These political moves are disgusting, inappropriate and would probably be effective (sadly). Political moves, mind you, Wasserman-Schultz probably learned while she was here at UF Student Government, given that nepotism is rampant and campaigning here has a dirty history.
But in a battle of political suicide (Democrats going from #NeverHillary to #Hillary2016, Republicans going from #NeverTrump to #Trump2016), the winner of this election will simply be the ones who destroy themselves less. Trump does that every time he opens his mouth or waves his tiny hands around. Clinton did it by appointing Wasserman-Schultz as the honorary chair of her campaign team. Like c’mon Hillary (stop trying to make Hilldog happen, it’s not going to happen), your biggest problem this election is trustworthiness. We as a nation know you’re power-hungry, kind of corrupt and totally not-transparent. But when you pull shit like this, it becomes hard (read: harder than it already is) to come to your defense.
It seems every time Trump tries to throw this campaign down the shitter, Clinton counter-throws with equal, if not more, impact. But there’s something about party anatomy that really plays into why I think Hillary will lose this election. During the primaries, the #NeverTrump movement was popular amongst party leaders, but the voters didn’t agree. The leaders did everything in their political power to stop the nomination, but the people shouted louder, so the Republicans backed off and unified behind Trump. In our camp, Sanders was fighting a rigged system from the start, and we all knew — so obviously — that our party’s leadership was doing everything they could to stop him.
But attacking him because he’s Jewish? Prohibiting voting access such that literal class action lawsuits are filed? The DNC planning to appoint top donors to federal boards and commissions? That’s some shady shit. It has completely validated the “Bernie Or Bust” movement because it’s embarrassing to be affiliated with a party that’s so unbelievably corrupt. All those voters that would have otherwise voted blue (regardless of the candidate) now either don’t vote, or worse, vote for Comb-over. Even more importantly, such behavior alienates independents — the deciders of elections, let us not forget — who would otherwise vote blue.
The democrats are committing political suicide at a much more alarming rate than the republicans. As a liberal, I’m humiliated at seeing such dishonorable conduct by the leadership, and I’m sad that it seems so rampant. President George W. Bush said behind closed doors he was going to be the last Republican president. Hopefully, something new will emerge from the wake of our tumultuous Democratic Party. Hopefully, it doesn’t resemble what’s happening with our neighbors.
Zachary Lee is a UF philosophy senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
