Mayor Pete was the Wine that was Sold Before its Time

Thinking back to the Democratic campaign, debates, and primaries – wow, was it that long ago and far away or what?  It's not even considered "current events" any longer.  But think, Super Tuesday wasn't even two months ago. And it was the only story in the news. Funny how things can change in our otherwise ponderous, slow-moving society; all it takes is one catastrophe.  Shows you how fragile everything is.  Next thing you know, they'll let it out that Mount Rushmore is made of papier mache.  (Well, the Old Man of the Mountains crumbled, so... )

But travel back with me, if you will, to one of the Democratic debates. Arrayed before our eyes was about as motley a crew as you're going to find anywhere. It included:

• A crabby old geezer who threatens and insults people who show up for his rallies and town halls;
• Another crabby old geezer who would be a card-carrying Bolshevik if the Bolsheviks still handed out cards;
• A gay mayor of a small Midwestern city, who is also Maltese-American. (Wow, talk about an ethnic minority! Albanians, move over. He's one of the few white people who can't be blamed for slavery.)
• A make-believe Indian whose babbling and gesticulations reminded me of a high-school cheerleader on amphetamines;
• A billionaire who was hoping to unseat the billionaire who occupies the White House;
• Another billionaire who was also hoping to unseat the billionaire in the White House by, basically, buying the election;
• A guy whose hobby is squirting whipped cream into people's mouths (Dr. Freud, call on line 1);
• A woman who made way too many libertarian noises, which is a death sentence if you're a Democrat;
• And various other loose cannons, Stalinists, and people whose speeches were so boring that sleep therapists are using them as treatment for insomnia.

I mean... what was this?? A re-boot of “Gilligan's Island”? So to say that any of these people had serious credibility – as in, can you really picture them in the Oval Office? – would be a sign that you weren't really paying attention. And yet there they were – the cream of the liberal crop – the best the Democrats had to offer. But how did things come to this sorry pass?

To answer this question, you have to delve deep into the liberal/Democratic psyche... and yes, I know, there are some doors that were never meant to be opened, but we must forge ahead if we seek enlightenment. Their serious disconnect from reality came on Election Night 2016, when the impossible... the unimaginable...the earth-shattering, world-destroying event... happened, namely that Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump. Or... at least that's what we think happened. But for a substantial portion of the citizenry, and for everyone with any position or influence in liberal politics, or the mainstream media, or the entertainment industry, or the Deep State, etc. it didn't happen that way at all. That was fake news, and an illusion created by dark forces based in Russia. The truth is, Hillary won the election (she did win the most votes, after all, and that's all that counts) and should, by rights, be living in the White House again, except that this time her “bimbo eruption” task force room in the basement would have been converted into a bachelor pad for Bill. So there she is – the Empress in Exile – unable to mount her throne because of that orange monstrosity – that usurper – that gonif. The amazing thing is that she hasn't mounted a military campaign like a modern-day Joan of Arc, and attempted to take the White House by force.  Surely what worked with Muammar al-Gaddafi should work with Donald Trump!

But it goes deeper than that. So convinced were they that Hillary had, in some mysterious way, taken the oath of office and initiated her administration that it never occurred to them that they would have to actually come up with another candidate, or the same one, a mere four years later. Why, it's an outrage! It's just wrong! Hillary should at this moment be enjoying her 4^th year as president, and preparing to be shooed back into office for a second term, with pro forma primaries and a pro forma election. They just couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that they would have to come up with one or more credible candidates, hold actual primaries, conduct an actual campaign, and hold an actual election. But reality in the form of a circus clown car came along and filled the gap by disgorging what we wound up seeing in the Democratic debates. All were unlikely... all were accidental... all were merely random products of a certain time and place... except.

Now, I have to keep you in suspense a bit longer in order to explain a seldom-noted, but very real, aspect of our political system, especially on the Democratic side. This is something I call “grooming”. The first clue is when a candidate comes, seemingly, out of nowhere, but already has all of the necessary credentials as well as an aura of inevitability – a halo that is visible to true believers. They appear before our eyes as having been chosen, and anointed, almost from the cradle, like a personage out of the Old Testament. They already have an impressive record of achievement (academic, political, military, etc.) and, most importantly, represent Change. Change is, of course, the core concept behind every liberal/progressive idea, plan, and program. Change for its own sake, I mean – and if you want to know how that differs from revolution, I would say only in speed and intensity. (Like their counterparts in Mao's China, American liberals believe in continuous revolution. The here and now is just a passing thing – a snapshot. It has no value other than as a mile marker en route to Utopia. What counts is the dogged, unending, fanatical quest for change – for the new and different – and, contrarily, the equally dogged, unending, fanatical quest to totally eliminate all traces of the past, including tradition, family, religion, true democracy, individual rights, gender – anything that might qualify as “conservative” and therefore “hate”.)

Other unmistakable signs – which seem superficial but are sure-fire vote-getters – include immaculate grooming, a practiced delivery, and – most important of all – a script. Not just talented speechwriters, but a library of memes, verbal tics, and pat answers that are designed to either satisfy or derail any question, inquiry, or expression of skepticism. And these scripts are dutifully memorized and wielded with unerring timing and precision, which, among other things, means that the Anointed One has to be highly intelligent and have a good memory, and be an instinctive actor.

So who were, and are, the Anointed Ones of our time? John Kennedy might be considered a precursor, even though it would be inaccurate to say that he came out of nowhere, having been a scion of the ruling elite. But he served as a model for what those who came after had to be, look like, and do. After he met his untimely end, those in charge initiated a search for the next Anointed One, the way the Tibetans scour the countryside for the next Dalai Lama when the old one passes away. And who should they choose but Bill Clinton, who – no accident – idolized JFK. But he had what it took, including the ability to mesmerize people and, if need be, convince them to lay down their lives for him. (A local cemetery here has a gravestone with a name on it and the inscription “Friend of Bill”. I kid you not.)

Now, it would be mere quibbling to debate as to the quality of Bill Clinton's time in office, because in the world of liberal hero-worship that doesn't count. It's not about results, it's about “ideas”, and if ideas are lacking it's about star power and, at last resort, pure animal magnetism, which both JFK and Bill Clinton had in abundance.

Next in line was, of course, Barack Obama – once again with very little in the way of actual achievement, but a surfeit of charisma (not to mention trouser creases). But he was not only crowned emperor for his time in office, but continues to be the “gray eminence” in the Democratic Party along with Bill Clinton. Once the anointing takes place, no one ever gets de-anointed, in other words.

So we see the trend here – 1961, 1993, 2009 (years in which they took office) – roughly one per generation. (One wonders why there haven't been more, since that leaves plenty of room for evil Republicans or non-anointed Democrats... but apparently this process isn't all that simple, and it takes a rare convergence of time, space, and the planets.) (Plus, who knows, there may have been plenty of other contenders along the line – other candidates for anointing who, for whatever reason, could not manage all of the hurdles and therefore were eliminated from competition. Some possible examples come to mind, but let's move on.)

Now then – for the “reveal”. (Well, you already know what I'm going to say, right?) The next in line for anointed status was Mayor Pete. Once again, he had all the right stuff in his vita or bio – all the right boxes had been checked – and he came out of nowhere in a similar fashion to that of Clinton and Obama. There are many other parallels as well, and they are striking. They are, if you will, part of the formula – of the template. The problem is that Mayor Pete was half-baked – and I don't mean that in the usual way. He was well on his way to being the next Obama, but he hadn't been properly cured, or aged, as yet. He was not politically fleshed out. He was youthful, but to a fault. (And there's still a lively debate as to whether he looked more like Mr. Bean or Alfred E. Neuman.) And yet there he was, and the Democrats, because of their utter desperation, decided to make him the man of the hour, even though I'm certain there were misgivings. And sure enough, even though he had a certain charisma, and was more precisely scripted than one of those “reality shows” on TV, he just couldn't whip up the same level of frenzy that his predecessors could. He wasn't rich enough, or handsome enough, or convincing enough for the unwashed who are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries, so he fell short and had to take the “walk of shame” along with all the other losers who were forced to kiss Joe Biden's ring. (Please note that the “walk of shame” started with “the meeting” they all had with Obama. Any questions as to who's still in charge?)

So yes – the Mayor Pete era lasted a bit over 13 months, and if the wheel of fate had only turned in a different way – if Hillary were president and not scheduled to leave office until January of 2025 – Mayor Pete would have been fully formed like one of the pod people and ready to succeed her. And of course he may yet get that chance; who knows? American history is full of comebacks.