Jim Webb Prefers The Donald to Hillary

By nominating Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party is handing over the presidency to Donald Trump.

This is a sentiment I’ve been repeating consistently over the past several weeks, and one that has yet to be truly appreciated by most people. There continues to be extreme denial amongst those who want “anyone but Trump” in recognizing that Trump is exactly what you’ll get by nominating a corrupt, Wall Street puppet under FBI investigation with more baggage than American Airlines. It’s obvious to those of us who have a sense of the national mood why this is the case, but remains beyond the grasp of those who are either a part of the status quo or depend on it for their financial survival.

Up to this point, I’ve been going on personal interactions with friends as well as interviews with voters to conclude that a significant number of Sanders supporters will simply not “fall in line” and vote for Hillary in November. While this is interesting in its own right, what has really surprised me is the number of people who have maintained they might vote for Trump if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination. Conventional wisdom would say this is impossible, but what many voters seem to want more than anything else in 2016 is to burn the status quo to the ground.

It’s one thing for voters to publicly express such sentiments, it’s a whole other ballgame when a former 2016 Democratic Party candidate does so. Yet that’s exactly what happened earlier today on the “Morning Joe“ show. It appears Jim Webb isn’t “Ready for Hillary.”

The Washington Post reports:  In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Reagan administration veteran-turned-Democratic senator from Virginia turned short-term presidential candidate Jim Webb said twice that he could not support Hillary Clinton if she won the Democratic nomination for president.  “No, I would not vote for Hillary Clinton,” Webb said.

Pressed on whether he would vote for Donald Trump, Webb said he was “not sure” but had not ruled it out.

“It’s nothing personal about Hillary Clinton, but the reason Donald Trump is getting so much support right now is not because of the, you know, ‘racists,’ etc. and etc.,” Webb said. “It’s because a certain group of people are seeing him as the only one who has the courage to say, ‘We’ve got to clean out the stables of the American governmental system right now.’If you’re voting for Donald Trump, you might be getting something very good or very bad. If you’re voting for Hillary Clinton, you’re going to get the same thing. Do you want the same thing?”

That last part of his statement is downright shocking, yet speaks a lot of truth. Jim Webb’s logic is sound and reflects the type of questioning that will be endlessly percolating through the minds of tens of millions of voters come November.

There’s no question about the type of president Hillary Clinton will be. She will coddle Wall Street (and bail them out again if necessary), while pushing a neocon foreign policy abroad. It’s not an exaggeration to say that a vote for Hillary means a vote for oligarchy at home and murder abroad. This is merely an inconvenient truth the Democratic establishment wishes to pretend doesn’t exist. Jim Webb understands this, which is why he says he won’t vote Hillary.

Democrat Hillary Clinton loses by 7.4% to John Kasich, by 4.7% to Marco Rubio, and by 0.8% to Ted Cruz, and she wins by 2.8% over Donald Trump.   Democrat Bernie Sanders wins by 6.0% over Trump, by 4.7% over Cruz, by 0.5% over Kasich, and ties with Rubio.   Because of this latest number, the Democrats are now hoping and praying for a Cruz nomination at the Republican convention.  This will be much more likely if Trump loses Florida which he is increasingly likely to do.  A week ago Trump led by 18% over Rubio in Florida.  Right now Trump is in “single digits” and it takes little imagination, given the rate of fall in Trump’s popularity now, that Trump will lose Florida and will also lose Ohio.  This is because the anti Trump establishment is carpet bombing Ohio and Florida with anti Trump ads fueled to a virtually unlimited supply of money.  In my opinion, Ted Cruz is the weakest candidate the Republicans could put up.  These statistics show Sanders beating Cruz by 4.7%. 

The Jekyll and Hyde of Donald Trump.  Of course, some of the things he thinks will “make America great” like punitive libel laws, censoring the internet, agreeing that the government can force Apple to create a backdoor, and more brutal torture would undoubtably do exactly the opposite. On the other hand, his opposition to phony trade deals, donor money in politics and ending the overall way things work in Washington D.C. are undoubtably positives.  A “very good” Trump presidency would mean that some of his more authoritarian and barbaric positions will be pushed to the wayside, while his tremendous will and force of personality can crush the rule of oligarchs for oligarchs and restore an economic future for the decimated middle class.  At the end of the day, there’s absolutely no way to tell which Trump you’re gonna get. So the real question may very easily come down to, should we take a gamble on someone who could be an ever worse fascist disaster, or do we maintain the current corrupt and destructive status quo? If Hillary Clinton is presented as the only alternative, I think a large number of Americans will be willing to gamble on Trump, for better or worse.  (note: “Gambling” is something desperate people are known to do)

Donald Trump’s son was just on the Shawn Hannity show and he was a spirited, fast talker who seemed to have all the answers.  Then at the end Hannity said the Democratic debate was pathetic because “They want to halt all energy production in this country and make us hostage to Saudi oil”.   Then he said “They want to eliminate all fracking in America”.  Then there was the line of “They want to give us all free stuff”.   Externalizing the costs of oil drilling and fracking is “free stuff” from the government.  It’s part of the cost of producing energy but the oil companies don’t have to pay for it.  Furthermore only Bernie said he would end all fracking.  Hillary seemed flexible.  But you also must consider that any anti fracking legislation will take time and while the fracking is still going on more energy is being produced.  Keep in mind that Saudi Arabia can pull the plug on our whole domestic production of energy program any time they want because they can produce oil for twelve or fifteen dollars a barrel if they want to, and can undercut our price any time it suits their fancy.  The only way we can beat them is to switch to a less polluting fuel such as wind or solar or geothermal.  People like Judy and Shawn have no conception of the notion that energy is not a fixed comidity.  If so we could say that the whale blubber business is in serious trouble today because until the 1850’s when you talked about “oil production” you meant whaling.  Shawn bends and twists people’s words and bends and twists logic in his own mind to arrive at his pre-determined outcome.  No candidate for President is going to go against Governor Snyder for instance because they are all so much in agreement with his policies.  Republicans believe that the dollar and profits are the supreme morality.  No matter how much corporate greed is out there or off shoring of production people like him and Judy are going to justify it every time.  When it comes to trashing labor unions or gutting the life of the inner city- - of course these people are going to do it.  The very idea of “a community of people” who have to get along is alien to these people.  Democrats on the other hand hold to John Lennon’s slogan of “Power to the people” but to people like Trump and the other Republicans “Power to the people” might as well be a Bolshivic communist slogan.