Conservatives have claimed for the past couple of elections that Republicans lost because they nominated RINOs. This time they have a total oddball (Trump) and an extreme conservative(Cruz) to vote for. There is no way they can claim that in 2016 they lost because the Republicans went with an Establishment RINO. I can't wait until Trump loses in a massive landslide The Republican Party will have to totally remake themselves and the Tea Party types types either form a third party or get out of politics.
"Republican in name only," Jim. It's what people like Limbaugh call anyone to the left of, say, Mussolini. RT, if Trump loses, they won't be able to claim he was "establishment," but they WILL be able to claim he wasn't a "real conservative," as some of them are doing already. I'm calling it now.
By the way, there was no button for halfway in between "I'm with her" and "I'm gonna hold my nose and vote for Clinton," which is where I am. I'm not sure I've ever felt so much ambivalence about a major political candidate. Not ambivalence about voting for her, mind you - that's a slam dunk for me for November. But in the recent NY primary, which actually mattered for once, I went back and forth and back and forth and literally made up my mind the morning I voted, which has never happened for me before.
As I walked into my polling station here for the primary I hadn't even decided which ballot I wanted (we had Rep, Dem, and Libertarian). Part of the problem was Gary Johnson wasn't on the Libertarian primary ballot because he announced late. I may be the only person in the country who's excited for the general election to have better options for me. haha. That being said, it's time for other parties to get into the polling and, hopefully, into the debates. I don't know why that seems so far fetched when it happened just over 20 years ago. I know there is no chance of someone other than a Dem or Rep winning in the general this time around but you have to start somewhere and this particular match up could increase the public's appetite for something different (especially given the lesson in civics this cycle has turned out to be re: the rules of these parties).
For those of us in California, it rarely matters who we vote for by the time our primary pops up in June. Hillary will have already locked it up by then. Even if Bernie won more delegates here, I doubt it would make any difference. There seems to be a greater focus on the local and state races where I live. The "pro-tenant" SF Dems have organized and are attempting to take control of the local party from the "pro-real estate developer" Dems who've had a death grip on City Hall for the past decade. These DINOs would rather give massive tax breaks to multi-national tech companies headquartered here and use the SFPD for homeless sweeps rather than address the middle class mass exodus, failing infrastructure, and the rising violent street crime and robberies.
I hear what ya say about CA. We live in the country and have to vote by mail. I voted for Edwards and he stepped down before they went to the polls.