General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The inevitable Hillary will lead to President Rand Paul. [View all]Nay
(12,051 posts)We do have two years to go and some more shuffling of candidates may happen due to health issues, etc., but if it's Hillary and Paul, your scenario is very possible.
Hillary's major flaw is that she can't seem to see that the zeitgeist among Americans has totally changed over the past 5 years. For example:
She thinks she has to prove she can go to war without blinking, we are sick and tired of war that makes the problems worse.
She thinks she has to be tough on drugs, we wish our (son, daughter, father, friend...) wasn't in jail over a joint.
She thinks bailing out the banks is OK, we wanted to hang them all from lampposts to teach them a lesson.
Rand Paul is dangerous indeed, because he DOES have a few ideas that are progressive, AND the Democrats aren't agreeing with him on these ideas. What are voters supposed to think? If I were an uninformed voter (who are usually more progressive than not, according to dozens of polls), I'd vote for Paul, knowing that more-of-the-same Hillary is going to get us more of the same.
Unfortunately, Hillary has been very consistently a Republican in all the important issues that are blowing up now. She can't just turn around and say "Oh, yes, we should legalize weed, throw the bankers in jail" because no one will believe her. And they shouldn't -- she hasn't, through words or actions, shown in any way that she believes any of that. Bernie Sanders and a few others have shown their dedication to such ideals, and they are the only ones who can be believed.
I have no idea if Bernie has a chance of winning, but I'd like him to try.