Silly Season

The term above is a political cliche, referring to a phenomenon that occurs during every campaign, during which odd candidates (e.g., Howard Dean) flourish in the polls before fading from view.

We are, obviously, in that season now, but I have to say that in my roughly fifty-five years of following politics closely, this is by far the silliest season ever.

Donald Trump is the most obvious piece of ... evidence, but we also see the most extreme leftist Democratic candidate perhaps ever being booted off the stage by a group of extreme leftists for not being extreme enough on racial issues.

While all this nonsense is certainly entertaining, and we will no doubt look back on it with nostalgia at some point (as people of my generation look back on our hippie days, even while acknowledging the insanity of it all), still one hopes that this will soon end, and the two parties can turn their attention to selecting reasonably rational candidates.