I'm of two minds

About the likely Republican nominee for president. In fact, ovewhelmingly likely. It's horrific and appalling that such a morally monstrous ignoramus could be on the verge of claiming leadership of one of our two major political parties. On the other hand, the people who are cheering for him and voting for him already existed, and they were already the constituency of that party. Republican politicians just kept the racism, mindless militarism, xenophobia and blood curdling threats of violence against all enemies real and imagined more obtusely stated.

So you could argue that it's salutary, even essential, to expose the rotten heart of American conservatism. He's opening up the canker and exposing the pus to the sunlight. And we all expect that in the general election, he'd be utterly wiped out along with the Republican Senate and even a good chunk of the House. Abrcadabra, Republican party destroyed, Hillary appoints Barack Obama to the Supreme Court (highly doubtful but wouldn't that frost their pumpkin?), and we get massive infrastructure spending, a carbon tax, immigration reform, and a multilateral foreign policy based on humanitarian objectives.

Or, the Trump candidacy legitimizes revolting rhetoric, extremism, and lunatic conspiracy theories. The world comes to view the United States with contempt and fear. (Maybe surprising they don't already.)

And then there's this. Could he possibly be elected? In a Clinton (or even more so Sanders) vs. Trump election, there's only one place the Koch brothers' billions could go. And the corporate media will be scrupulously fair and balanced. So who really knows? I wouldn't have thought the present situation was possible.