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By Mark Green
Matalin thinks that Trump can still come back while vanden Heuvel doubts it even though Hillary's no Bernie. But given Trump's awful polls/analytics/infrastructure/party split, Host sees a coming "Rolling Realignment" that'll change government & America.
*Trump's Descent. Has Trump lost it by saying Obama's pro-terrorist, Clinton's a "corrupt liar", bars should allow guns? Mary admits that Trump "says cuckoo things" but she reminds us that Hillary's got problems and Trump responding by firing Corey Lewandowski. She and Katrina brush off any DumpTrump effort as too late -- a GOP jury that sided with Trump in the primaries is not now about to repudiate its own verdict.
Katrina implies that Trump is not merely down but out given his incessant nativism, racism, and birther-ism. She hopes, however, that Clinton doesn't merely back into the presidency but adopts more of the Sanders popular, populist program.
As for Trump's unprecedentedly vitriolic attacks on Clinton as a "corrupt racist in it for the money," there's agreement that it's probably the only card he can play but that it will more likely only excite his base though not grow it.
One area of consensus: this will be looked on as the election when social media really started to shove aside traditional media. "The old order's dying," says Katrina, "while a new one is being born." All cite Trump's twitter-based rise, the 'Periscoping' of the House gun sit-in, and, as Katrina emphasizes, Sanders phenomenal ability to raise over $200 million and challenge a Clinton based on a resonating viral message. Here comes "Digital Democracy."
Host: Trump seems intent on fulfilling my weekly prediction that (quoting Galbraith on Black Tuesday), "the end had come but it was not yet in sight."
Yes the Clinton campaign must daily warn against complacency lest Brexit-like anger sweep America too. But when a) there's a slowly rising progressive national majority -- witness the GOP losing the popular vote in five of past six presidential elections, b) its nominee unrepentently engages in racist bullying, c) he sees a big chunk of his party abandon him -- Romneys, Reagans, Bushes, Scowcroft, Paulson, Kirk, Sasse, Beck, Erickson, Lowry, Gerson, Will...; and d) polls show him falling behind by double digits in three polls this weekend, it appears that Galbraith-time is here.
Smart Republicans and progressive should now be planning Day-After strategies should Clinton win in a suicide-landslide (GOP suicide/voter landslide) and carry the Senate and Supreme Court with her...threatening even the House majority in '18 or '22 after reapportionment. Clearly the party and country are moving in favor of taxing the rich more, enacting smart gun-safety laws, mitigating climate change, strengthening our democracy with less money/more voters. Will the party of Clintons/Obama be ready for that moment? Will the NationalReview/Kasich wing of the GOP win back the party's base from Trump & Cruz?
The Economic Argument. Clinton spent much of the week mocking Trump on the economy -- his business books usually end "with chapter 11". Who has the better economic case this Fall?
The Host challenges Matalin: since the last Republican president nearly crashed the economy and CLINTON-Obama enjoyed far better results, how can Hillary CLINTON lose this argument? Katrina thinks she can't and won't, but again she urges paradigm shifts in economic policy on jobs, minimum wage, tax and trade policy.
Mary discounts the data just cited noting noting that each side has their own numbers (the workforce participation rate!). But she's not wrong to conclude that people are rarely satisfied with standard economic measures "and they're not living the numbers you cite."
Indeed, right now, the only metric where The-Businessman-Trump is leading Clinton, 51% to 43%.
*Guns After the Murphy Filibuster & Lewis Sit-in. Until Brexit commanded everyone's attention, the Democrats' push-back on guns seemed to shift the standard, tired debate from, in Katrina's ;phrase, "a moment of silence to moments of action." Murphy did force the Senate to at least vote on various bills for universal background checks and NoFly/NoBuy (though none got more than 52 votes) and the mass House sit-in overheated social media and forced Ryan to abruptly adjourn his chamber.
Is Murphy right that when 90% want certain legislation in a Democracy, they get it? Not this year, concludes vanden Heuvel, but yes within the next 5-10 years. It took 60 years and 100 years from Teddy Roosevelt's proposal for universal health care to largely become law with Medicare and Obamacare. This epic gun fight is not over, not when 88 people were killed by guns in the 25 hour filibuster alone.
Host: The day after the show's taping, a previously "law abiding" gun owner shot her two daughters to death in their home, exposing the reality that every time someone brings a gun into a home, the chance of a fatality in the family is 6 times greater than for an intruder. Not that that fact has any affect on those praying to the Second Amendment Gods.