Yes It Is, It’s True: U.S. 2-party system is in deep doo-doo

There have been many interpretations and observations offered for Bernie Sanders’ huge upset victory in the Michigan presidential primary March 8. I might as well offer mine.

Jimmy Carter was right. There really is a “malaise” that has descended on America and on Michigan, and it is causing a great deal of fracturing, frustration and anger about the ways things have been going.

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the War on Drugs is a horrible failure, the War on Terror’s results are even worse (too many have died) and pessimism is replacing optimism for those looking down the road. Are we going there in a handbasket?

A fascinating outcome is that the two-party system that has dominated American politics for at least 150 years is in serious trouble. Both parties seem to be coming apart at the seams.

The rise of Donald Trump as front-runner among the 16 clowns originally on the Republican Party primary bus has caused the establishment members and monied interests in the GOP to state publicly they cannot support him as the standard bearer. Take a good look at what 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney have stated publicly.

The GOP’s unraveling is occurring at the same time Democrats increasingly are seeing a war between the progressive wing of the party and the status quo Democratic National Committee. Army Bob astutely has noted that front-runner Hillary Clinton, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and their ilk have done everything they can to brush aside the pesky progressive Bernie Sanders, even to the point of using the media to gain tremendous unfair advantage.

Despite the constant assertions that Bernie’s got no chance and should give up, he has scored primary victories, the most stunning of which took place right here in the Great Lakes State.

It was stunning because it defied the pundits, the pollsters and prognosticators, the talking heads who fill our airways with their all-knowing blather. I was elated that they flopped like a landed fish in their self-important assurances that Hillary Clinton would take Michigan by as many as 20 to 25 percentage points.

Some observers now call it the biggest political primary upset in modern history, even bigger than Gary Hart’s victory over Walter Mondale in 1984 in New Hampshire. Even bigger than John Engler’s razor-thin win over Gov. James Blanchard in 1990 while the pollsters had Blanchard up by 14 points only days before the general election.

Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com, for whom I have a lot of respect because he was right in 2012 while Karl Rove was wrong, said Hillary had a 99% chance of winning Michigan. Since then he has fallen on his sword and admitted he has to eat crow.

So what caused this?

I still am fascinated with the unraveling of our political system, particularly the two parties. I’m fascinated that two of the most popular candidates in 2016 both are mavericks and are riding a tidal wave of frustration with the status quo. The Establishment and conventional wisdom are getting hammered. Let’s hope America doesn’t as well.