GOP race to the bottom

You know, I thought it would be fun to have Donald Trump in the Republican presidential primary,... but now I'm starting to wonder.

Yes, he says stupid, crazy things, but the GOP base just can't get enough of stupid and crazy - especially racist stupid and crazy. And that's creating desperation among the rest of the candidates, especially those who thought they had stupid and crazy all wrapped up, themselves.

Mike Huckabee isn't even running for president, not really. He doesn't have a chance, and he knows it. He just wants the attention. He wants the name recognition, because he wants to improve his profits when selling snake oil to the rubes, ideally when he's back at Fox 'News' afterwards.

But no one has been paying any attention to him. Donald Trump has stolen the spotlight, so Huckabee is trying to out-Trump Trump - whether that causes Iran to get nuclear weapons, whether that causes more war in the Middle East, whether that irreparably damages America's influence in the world, or not. This isn't funny, it's just sickening.

Sure, Huckabee would have been stupid and crazy anyway,... but this stupid and crazy? And then there's Rick Perry, with the same worries and the same solution: to out-Trump Trump:



Yeah, that's what we need, lots more guns, lots more insecure people, lots more macho idiots in movie theaters. That way, when they hear a shot - or some other loud noise, maybe - they can all draw their guns and start shooting, in a dark theater, at all of the other shadowy gun nuts who've brought their own weapons, too!

I grew up watching cowboy shows, but even in the wild, wild west, they didn't want random idiots wandering around town with ready weapons. Even in westerns, people weren't that stupid. When random idiots were armed, it wasn't a good thing. Most towns insisted that weapons not be carried inside city limits, except by the sheriff and his deputies.

But in a dark movie theater? Oh, that would be a great place to have a gun battle, wouldn't it? Of course, we need good guys with guns to shoot the bad guys with guns (especially in the dark, with no one knowing who fired the first shot), right?

Fun fact: Do you know how to tell a 'good guy with a gun' from a 'bad guy with a gun'? They're all good guys until they pull the trigger.

Dylann Roof was a 'good guy with a gun' until he killed nine people in a black church. Alex Kozak was a 'good guy with a gun' - and an "open-carry" promoter who carried his gun everywhere - before he shot Andrea Farrington three times in the back for refusing his sexual advances. George Zimmerman was a 'good guy with a gun' before he accosted Trayvon Martin for the crime of walking while black.

Retired cop Curtis Reeves was certainly a 'good guy with a gun' - and highly trained - before he shot Chad Oulson for texting his daughter in an earlier theater shooting. And both James Pullam and Robert Taylor were 'good guys with guns' - with their concealed-carry permits and everything - before they killed each other in a road rage incident which wouldn't have happened if they hadn't both been armed.

So it's very, very easy to tell a 'good guy with a gun.' If they haven't shot anyone yet, they're a 'good guy with a gun.' Simple, huh? (And if that doesn't that make you feel safe, maybe I should start talking about all of the accidental shootings in America...)

Now sure, this is Rick Perry. And sure, it's the GOP. I'm sure we all expected crazy. But this crazy? Again, this is the Trump effect, don't you think? Trump is stupid, crazy, and very, very loud, so he's taking the spotlight from the rest of the stupid and crazy GOP field. To a candidate like Perry, that has to change.

Rick Perry, and candidates like him, are desperate to be noticed, mostly so they can get into the debates. (Fox 'News' is letting only the top ten candidates - by poll numbers - into the debates, so with a crowd this big, a lot of them aren't going to make it.) With his crazy, bigoted comments, Donald Trump is actually leading the pack. You don't think the rest of them haven't noticed that?

However, they're not competing to be the internet clown of the day. They're not competing to be reality TV stars. They're not even competing for an upcoming show on Fox 'News' (well, some of them are, I suspect). They're competing to be the next President of the United States!

Is stupid and crazy really what we want? After all, we tried that during the Bush years, and America still hasn't recovered.

No, I thought this would be a lot funnier. Instead, I mostly just feel depressed.