Goodbye Cruel World #GOPSeppuku

I think a lot of the fault, actually, belongs to the conservative intellectual leadership of America that you see in this issue of "National Review." The conservative cause that animates the Republican Party, we don't appeal to young people, we don't appeal to millennials, we don't appeal to young women, we don't appeal to minorities. We appeal to only cranky old white guys like me. - Alex Castellano, THIS WEEK

those of us who would like to see a gop nominee other than trump or cruz were not necessarily helped this week by national review and the conservative intellectual establishment's well-meaning but poorly-timed assault on trump.

this contest is not yet about defeating donald trump, it is about finding an alternative to him. if that alternative is cruz, the republican party’s future is in doubt. if that alternative is rubio (or less likely, bush/christie/kasich), "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Today's Democratic Party has little room for old-school, mechanical pragmatists such as Clinton. Its heart belongs to the rebellious, agitators such as Elizabeth Warren. Combine George McGovern's 1960 anti-war protest campaign with a dash of the "Decade of Love." Tailor the mix with a sprinkle of 2016; iPhones, principled shoes (TOMS, "The Shoes That Educate Poor People!") and replace LSD with a few pharmacological mood-stabilizers to round life's sharp edges. 

There, you have Bernie Sanders' throwback-to-the-future campaign: It is fantasy camp for middle-class, wannabe '60s radicals. It is an undemanding revolution, accessible without risk or effort. They would be more comfortable Ubering to Wall Street than marching on it, but their mission of insurrection is unchanged.

Before Sanders is done, Democrats may again wear bell-bottoms with peace-sign patches. Gallup reports that 59% of Democrats have no problem embracing a self-described socialist for president.
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Clinton has campaigned with awkward artificiality. She has advocated her party's new lefty-populism with the grace of Charles Barkley's golf swing.

She has tried. She broke with President Barack Obama on the Trans-Pacific Free-Trade Deal. She cloned Sanders' support of the $15 an hour federal minimum wage. With robotic focus, Clinton even pretended to be Elizabeth Warren. When she said, "Don't let anybody tell you that... businesses create jobs," she looked like a right-handed NFL quarterback attempting a left-handed completion. Clinton is no more comfortable as candidate of the little guy than Richard Nixon walking on the beach in wing tips.

At the beginning of the campaign, Democrats had accepted that Clinton offered the best shot at winning a general election and protecting the White House from a somewhat deranged mob of Republicans.

And Democrats owed a debt to Clinton: Eight years ago, they chose to correct injustices of race before those of gender. They nominated the first black president instead of the first female president. Democrats sent Hillary Clinton and the women of America to the back of the bus to wait their turn. They hoped not to do that again.

Then, Bernie Sanders gave Democrats an opportunity to party like it's 1967. They could dig their tie-dyed shirts out of the closet while helping Clinton. They could bring her home to their middle-class version of Woodstock, this time with cozy theater seating and no mud. By embracing Sanders, they could pressure Clinton to move left: At last, she would be like them. 

Initially, Sanders was not Clinton's opponent. He was a plea from concerned friends, imploring Clinton to renew herself as Hillary Rodham, Wellesley grad, and restore her radicalism.

But Clinton achieved the impossible. She transformed Bernie Sanders from an unelectable messenger to serious opponent. Again, the Sidam Touch [reverse Midas touch] doomed her.