This election is rather embarrassing isn’t it? No matter whether your side with liberals or conservatives or meander in the middle, this is humiliating for our nation. We will elect a president next month and it will almost certainly be either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. I am truly having a difficult time wrapping my arms around the idea that we have digressed so far into the cesspool at the highest level of our political system.

Hillary Clinton is in all likelihood the most politically corrupt individual to ever run as a major party nominee in the United States. This is why Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old, self-declared socialist nearly defeated Mrs. Clinton for the nomination. Frankly Wiki-Leaks show us that Mr. Sanders probably did defeat her, but shenanigans in the DNC snuffed him out.

Our other choice, a bombastic, billionaire playboy. What the hell just happened here? Hillary Clinton is the most heavily flawed Democrat candidate since Lyndon “Vietnam War” Johnson who ended up bailing out of his own re-election in 1968 after a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primary. Is this is the best the Republicans can do? This election could very well end the Republican party in the United States.

Hillary is not new. Barrack Obama, sure, he was fresh and new, the Republicans were not ready for him. But Hillary? Seriously RNC, you couldn’t prep for battle better than this? Any one of the major mainstream Republican candidates, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, even Jeb Bush would likely defeat Hillary Clinton. Yet the party nominated Donald Trump. In all fairness to the RNC, Mr. Trump crushed it at the primary polls thrashing every Republican vote record since the primary system began back in the 1960s.

But this is the state of affairs for the Republicans. They are losing on social issues and abandoning the one issue that resonates with voters across all age bands from millennials to boomers. It’s fiscal conservatism that will win the elections! George W. Bush was the proof that the Republican party was on its deathbed. Mr. Bush granted the tax cuts he promised. It was a fair tax plan that benefits the middle class far more than the wealthy, despite the left’s insistence otherwise. But Mr. Bush enjoyed one party control for the first six years of his administration. He ran the surpluses into deficits, the likes of which had not been seen before. Reagan had a solid excuse for the deficits incurred in his two terms; he had a strong opposition congress led by a titan of politics, Tip O’Neil. They would not yield on budget cuts. Bush had no such opposition. The Republicans are dead, they just don’t know it yet.

Donald Trump has an appeal as a Washington outsider, but he is as flawed as Hillary Clinton. What the RNC needs is a return to the fiscal responsibility. Not just tax cuts, but actual budget cuts. They all follow the flawed social right and fiscal moderate that is costing them elections at the national level. What the party needs is social moderation and fiscal conservatism.

What about the second presidential debate? Donald Trump was hit with a political bombshell on Friday night before the Sunday debate. A tape was released of Donald Trump and Billy Bush (Access Hollywood TV Show) on the set of a soap opera in which Mr. Trump was scheduled to make a cameo appearance. This was taped in 2005, well before the height of his TV fame with The Apprentice. He engaged in a conversation of raunchy guy talk regarding his exploits with females and his status as a star. He was egged on by Billy Bush. The talk was gutter grade and indefensible for a presidential candidate. Mr. Trump quickly apologized and made no excuse or attempt to diminish the severity of the comments in what seemed like a genuine and remorseful apology. He did suggest we try to focus on the issues. Well of course he did.

At the debate, naturally the tape issue was the first question asked by a clearly aggressive Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. Of the three debates thus far these two were the most egregiously one-sided in favor of Hillary. It was a disgusting display of Soviet style propaganda media, intended to prop up Mrs. Clinton.  

The question however was fair game, this was a major blow to the Trump campaign and could very well seal the deal for Hillary. I don’t think Mr. Trump could have done a better job of handling that question. Neither of these two candidates are really that sharp on the debate stage, but Trump hit the long ball when it counted. He really delivered in the clutch under tremendous pressure.

Despite the one-sided moderators and the softball questions for Mrs. Clinton, Trump won the debate. Hillary easily defeated him in the first debate, but Trump won this one hands down. One key moment came when Donald Trump delivered one of those eternal zingers. He had just gone off on Clinton’s email scandal and on her turn she led her rebuttal with it’s a good thing someone like Donald isn’t in charge of the law… He interrupted with perfect timing, “Because you’d be in Jail”.

The bulk of the media including Fox News is pushing a narrative that Donald Trump’s comments in that tape were bragging about sexual assault. I read the actual transcript of the conversation in its full context and I disagree with that presumption. Donald Trump’s comments in this tape are indefensible, but I don’t believe he was advocating for sexual assault. I am not dragging myself to the gutter so I will paraphrase the raunchy comments with softer restated language. He mentioned early on in the comments that he wanted to sleep with a woman the two were talking about and he failed, she refuted him. He then started talking about how star power allows him to be aggressively forward with women. He said he goes right in for the kiss. Billy egged him on some more after Trump suggested women let him (and stars in general) do anything. Trump then went on to suggest he could grope them anyway he saw fit using crude and vulgar terms to define female anatomy. But let’s be clear, he said they let him do it. This is not suggesting they are unwilling but to the contrary they are willing participants. It was more like groupies with a rock star. His comments were unbecoming of a gentleman and disgusting; but not an advocate for sexual assault. They are more a commentary on the cult status or star power in America.

That said, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family has a long history of sexual misconduct. Hillary has been complacent with Bill Clinton’s escapades and in fact has been an attack dog to his defense going after the victims of her husband’s misdeeds with vicious vitriol. The mainstream media should not let her take the high road on this issue. Neither candidate deserves that privilege.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a third debate in which the issues facing America and not the exploits of a couple of classic male pigs, are the topic of discussion? Will Chris Wallace take the high road? I hope so, because Mr. Trump can win on the issues. He won’t win on the low road because the mainstream media will not cover the corruption associated with the Clintons.

Alas, I fear Hillary will be our next president. The Republicans have only themselves to blame. The party is on the brink of extinction and they can’t see the light. Fiscal conservatism and social moderation is the key. The Democrats lock up the Black and Hispanic vote, they lock up the gay and lesbian vote and they do it on a platform of acceptance. In the case of Blacks and Hispanics the Democrats have done no favors to those groups, it is just talk.

After the Vice Presidential debate, I commented that Tim Kaine was disingenuous and akin to an attack dog with the sole exception of his thoughtful answer to the question about his personal beliefs contrasting his political ideas. His answer was exactly how Republicans need to treat the hard right-wing religious beliefs many hold. This is America, we are free, and that means we need to accept people as they are. The Republicans spend far too much time prosecuting gays and not enough time prosecuting the destruction of our economic system under the crushing weight of a gargantuan government. Only God almighty can judge us for our sins and modern Christians in America need to start following Jesus rather than trashing those who do not believe. Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”. Here is the entire context of that famous Bible verse from John Chapter 8 verses 3-7 King James Translation:

³And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
⁴They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
⁵Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
⁶This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
⁷So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Republicans empower Democrats when they try to legislate the Bible. We are not a theocracy and the party would do well to remember that. There are moral issues facing the country in which the Christian right is on the high ground. The third term abortion “partial birth” which is a grotesque practice that would make people in the middle ages cringe, stands as an example of where the religious right is spot on. The gay marriage issue however, let it go already.

It is here that Donald Trump is making a difference. Mr. Trump is reaching out to the gay community, reaching out to the black community. Until this tape revelation he was even strong with the evangelicals despite his soft and squishy positions on important religious issues. I didn’t want Donald Trump to be president. But here he is one of two choices really. We have a decision to make between someone so dark and corrupt as Mrs. Clinton who has ridden the coat tails of her husband and tolerated his disgusting sex-capades purely to gain power, and the reckless billionaire playboy. I’ll have to take my chances with the Donald on this. With Hillary we know what we are getting, Mexican style corruption, politics at its very worst. With trump its a wild card. Think of Monte Hall, you have Hillary with corruption and filth but you know what she is, it’s a known entity. Monte says, “but you can trade it away for what’s behind door number two”… could be a billy goat back there… could be a better America. I’m taking door number two.

The Republicans are concerned with down ballot elections and rightfully so. Yet their decision to abandon Donald Trump may very well keep some voters home. Paul Ryan is going to be the catalyst for the end of the party. If the conservative voters stay home, Hillary wins and the Democrats get both houses back. That is the end of our free country and it is not Trump’s fault. It is the Republican party’s failure to keep the platform of Reagan and a failure to see the social changes in this country. If republicans want a solid conservative voter turnout they need to support Trump as best they can. He is bringing huge crowds and enthusiasm to this election. That is good for the party.

The Republican’s need to come out stronger than EVER to this election because whether or not Trump wins or Hillary wins, they must keep the congress. Don’t forget that the next president will immediately fill that vacant seat on the Supreme Court so conservatives need to at least try to get trump elected.

I have given some thought to this notion of a Trump presidency. This could lead to unprecedented congressional cooperation. Trump is effectively an independent and not well liked by the establishment of either party. That might be the silver lining in this very dark cloud hovering over the election. If Hillary is elected and the Republicans maintain control of the house, it will be the status quo. But if Trump is elected it doesn’t matter who has control of the house or Senate, there will be a bi-partisan effort to keep Mr. Trump in line. Conservatives need to vote this fall. If you can’t stomach a vote for Donald, then vote for Gary ‘What’s Aleppo’ Johnson or whomever you fancy; but for heaven’s sake vote the party down ballot. No one wants to live in Hillary’s America with a full house of Democrats. Not even Liberals, they just don’t realize it yet.