ON PERSPECTIVE: ELECTION USA: 2016

In March 2016, after 12 primary elections, Drew DeSilver published a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center on the voting trends for the two major parties. The research indicated that only 11.7% of eligible Democrats, and 17.3% of eligible Republicans, voted in those primaries.  

Do these primaries, then, really give us an idea of who is going to win the general election?  NO!

For this we need the results of a general election and the count from the Electoral College. Even if we return to the apparently apathetic 1996 election, when only 49% of total eligible voters chose to go to the polls, there still appears to be at least 20% more voters who will mark a ballot, including a boatload of independents. 

In a 2014 Gallup poll 42% of eligible voters claimed to be neither Democrats nor Republicans.  And, in 2012, our last general election, 54.9% of eligible voters went to the polls to vote.

My prediction is this election will generate even higher turnouts from both sides of the aisle. Republicans will come for two reasons...to vote for their hero AND to vote against the man they think is destroying the GOP. 

As for Democrats, they will come for two reasons also...to choose the first woman President of the United States AND to vote against the man who thinks Mexicans are criminals, women are fat slobs, and all Muslims are evil.

Stay tuned.  We are all in for a wild ride.  If you have friends in foreign places, be prepared to answer many questions.  For example, how can a man who says such hateful things, and appears to know nothing, run for President of the United States and leader of the free world? 

Just tell them we are an equal opportunity nation.  Any idiot with enough money and fame can run for office.  

Then, remind them, we elected George W. Bush...twice!