Politics is never pretty

Hillary Clinton has won another set of primary elections and it is clear she cannot be overtaken by Bernie Sanders

Hillary Clinton has won another set of primary elections and it is now clear that she cannot be overtaken by Bernie Sanders however the numbers are crunched, and thus becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee for the American presidency in an election to be held in November. Neither she nor her principal rival, Donald Trump on the Republican side, have been formally adopted by their parties yet, but Mrs Clinton has a better than even chance of the Democrats, some of them unwillingly, selecting her for what is arguably the most important job in the world. If that is the case, then she becomes the first woman from a major party to run for the US presidency.

Thus far, the campaign has been bitter, divisive and has failed to bring together the disparate wings and factions within the Republicans or the Democrats. Both candidates score high disapproval ratings and whoever wins a large slice of America is going to be unhappy with the result and not trust or support the winner. The politics of polarity is going to continue, possibly harden, once the count is made and a new president elected. Commentators in the US are saying that this election is about selecting the least-worst option, which cynical as it is, sums up what possibly a majority of voters believe to be the case. The real contest will begin once the conventions are done and dusted — and they are unlikely to be examples of best behaviour and modest decorum. The Clinton camp now has to win over the millions of Sanders loyalists, primarily young voters who are deeply distrustful of her as Old School Establishment and not the liberal iconoclast they believe the country needs. Many are openly disdainful or contemptuous of her and flipping them before November is a Sisyphean task. The last six months have been ugly, sometimes violent, and the next six months are unlikely to be any prettier. And the winner will be? As of today it could be either presumptive candidate. Watch this space, as the saying goes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2016.

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