Finally, the break we all needed to make sense of these presidential campaigns.
And that, of course, is not true at all.
There is some time before New York attacks the problem of what might be called “The Republican Difficulties,” were this a 19th-century book on the campaign. But that book would also need a chapter called, “The Democrat Difficulties.”
The problems are quite different.
For those of us who thought Tuesday’s contest in Wisconsin would bring a refreshing clarity, well, we just guessed wrong. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas hit Donald Trump with a slap shot of great power. But will it be of lasting power? No. Why? Ted Cruz and New York? That’s not a fit at all.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont stomped all over Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, too, but it’s hard to tell what that means. This is one of the most perplexing matchups in recent times.
First, the Republicans.
Donald Trump is not going to go away simply because Cruz won in Wisconsin by a substantial measure. What did you expect? You can bet a lot of those Cruz voters held their noses as though they had wandered into a Limburger cheese-tasting contest by accident because they felt they had to help stop Trump.
I don’t think he will be stopped by becoming loser for a day. He’s out there now refilling his ego and pumping up his thinking muscle and working on even more outrageous things to say and do as the April 19 New York primary approaches.
It has worked for him in the past. Sure, he offended just about every woman in America in one way or another and essentially apologized by saying nobody loves women more than he loves women, as though affirmation was what was needed.
I just don’t think it matters.
He has tossed enough matches into the tinder of Republican America to have set off a huge brush fire over the past few months.
It’s still smoking, so expect more of that.
Look at it this way. Assume Trump is actually knocked off track somehow. Then the party will have to figure out a way to knock Cruz off track, too, because he is no better as a choice to lead the party to November and everyone knows it.
The mere presence of campaigning in Wisconsin led to hopeful leaks about House Speaker Paul Ryan and how great it would be to slip him into place with a second ballot victory in Cleveland.
Good luck.
The Republicans would end up with a party constructed of Trump-loving no-shows, Cruz-loving no-shows and a tiny handful of John Kasich loyalists.
Up until this point, it seemed the Democrats were sitting pretty by comparison, but that was before Sanders and his passionate undergrad army started pushing hard on the numbers and took a whole line of caucuses and the Wisconsin primary too.
Here’s my question: Can the Democratic Party deal with a potential candidate who is not only not a Democrat but also an ardent critic of the Democrats and what they have represented for a long time? Bernie sits with the Democrats in the Senate because there is no “democratic socialist” seat there.
Forget about the romantic ideal for a minute (and I am a big believer in romantic ideals) and just think about how political parties actually work.
The players spend a lot of time raising money for their own campaigns and to distribute to other players who seem worthy. It’s like they build up their own private banking system, except no one counts the money very often and there is an abiding sense that shenanigans happen all the time.
Political conventions are all about politicians and rubes and visitors and people with their hands out, either for canapes or better. The sense is that someone is always owed something by someone, and that is where people come to collect.
Enter Sanders, who is legendary for owing no political favors to anyone. Cleaner than Ralph Nader, I suspect.
And not even a Democrat.
Clinton, on the other hand, owes tons of things to tons of people who also owe things to her. And that doesn’t even get into what Bill the Big Dog might be able to collect or distribute.
So, there you have it a good deal of the way through the primary season: One party can’t find anyone it likes, and another party has someone its voters like a lot but who is not actually a member of the party.
This is only going to get more interesting.
Charles M. Madigan teaches at Roosevelt University.
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