Donald Trump is falling prey to his own habits and it is costing him his presidential candidacy. In the 1990s, Ivana Trump accused Donald of improper behavior during their divorce proceedings. They were accusations that helped Ivana to take Donald to the financial cleaners in a divorce that anyone who is my age probably remembers. Since there was no Internet back then, the details were never really released and most people forgot about it over time.

Fast forward to last week and now the Democratic Party (I am assuming it is the Democratic Party, it could be the Republicans just to get rid of Trump and his big mouth) roll out Ivana again and ask her to be more explicit in her accusations against her husband. Ivana uses the word rape and Trump’s attorney immediately makes a statement that a husband cannot rape a wife. Bye, bye Donald. It was fun while it lasted.

Sure, Trump is threatening to sue the Daily Beast (the newspaper that printed the quote from his lawyer) and now he is trying to put some distance between himself and his lawyer, but the damage is done. If an energetic scream can derail a Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign, then completely insensitive comments about rape can do the same to a Republican candidate’s campaign. Trump is done and now the bouncing ball moves to the next one in line to get destroyed by the political machine.

This sort of shenanigans happen every presidential campaign and I watch as, one by one, candidates get picked off by the political machine like metal ducks in a shooting gallery. It shouldn’t bother me, but the next metal duck on the conveyor belt is Bernie Sanders and I really like Bernie Sanders.

When Donald Trump fell from grace so quickly and so hard, Bernie Sanders rocketed to the forefront of the field. Notice that you are not even hearing the names Bush and Clinton yet. That is because the real contenders always lay back until the riff raff is weeded out after Christmas. Once the New Year starts, you will see Hillary and good ol’ Jeb out there campaigning and talking about how they are the only answer to our problems. In the meantime, Bernie will be squashed and the Donald will probably have lawsuits pending against a whole bunch of people. Lawsuits are just the way that Trump does business.

The other problem I have with this typical political move is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Trump’s policies or his politics. The fact that Donald Trump was prepared to take a very hardline approach to China and trade should have been enough to derail his campaign before it started. But people were actually into his politics, which should tell you how uninformed the American people really are. People are so wrapped up in what they think are Trump’s answers that it took a personal scandal to bring Trump down. I guess I am grateful that we don’t have to worry about Trump anymore, but I really wish it had been his crazy politics that had brought him down.

So what will it be for Bernie Sanders? It could be another personal scandal as Bernie wrote some extremely offensive and controversial things when he was in college. I guess what bothers me about that is that no one is the same person now that they were in college. Your views change and, as you learn things about people, you start to understand the real issues much better. The things that Bernie was saying while he was in college may not even come close to representing the person he is today. But the political machine will probably use those past writings to chew Sanders up and spit him out.

Face it folks – you and I will have to choose between Hillary or Jeb in 2016. We don’t have a choice. We could have a choice if we would just stop responding so negatively to personal scandals, but that is not our nature. These huge political parties know what the people want and they deliver it every time.

I guess it isn’t so bad because we get 11 months of the two parties going after each other and that is always entertaining. The problem is that I am not looking to be entertained. I want to learn more about the presidential candidates so that I can make the best possible choice. Thankfully, the Internet allows me to do research and understand the politics of each candidate. Unfortunately, no one else seems to care about that stuff.

By the way, has anyone seen a website from any of the candidates for mayor of Lockport? Do you all really want to vote for a candidate who is still stuck in the 1970s? I don’t.

+George N Root III  is a Lockport resident and local troublestarter. His column appears every week and is apparently read by a lot of people. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3 or send him an email at georgenroot3@gmail.com. Go Bernie!

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