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Is there a common denominator lower than lowest?

It's hard to recall a political race less edifying than the current run for the Republican leadership. As Ted Cruz and Donald Trump each try to out-offensive each other in a race to the very, very bottom it's easy to have a good old laugh at it. Those Americans eh? What'll they come up with next? Thanks for providing us with a quality chuckle. be it The candidates having a whose got the hottest wife contest. Terump lauding the size of his penis, Cruz suggesting that Muslim neighbourhoods in the US should "patrolled and secured" by polic. Trump's walll, Cruz's suggestion of carpet bombing ISIS (at which the Pentagon coughed and said well no, because that would be illegal), Trumps misogyny, Cruz's religious bigotry, take your pick.

But, unfortunately, whilst it is kind of funny, the depressing reality is that this is the best the American right wing can come up with. What Matt, I hear you cry, dpressed about the quality of right wingers? But you're a lefty! You should be licking your lips at watching the right reveal its true, bigoted colours!

Well, yes, to a certain extent, and I'd find it hilarious, if it weren't for the possibility that one of these psychopaths could soon be in charge of The Most Powerful Nation on Earth (TM). And also were it not for my fervent belief that even though am largely of the left, the whole idea of politics should be a system of checks and balances, you need quality ideas and thinking from each politcial wing, and in general the best result is somewhere in the middle (if maybe a touch more to the left). It's why the Tories of the late nineties and early noughtiers were such a dreadful opposition, they were so shocked at being dumped out of power that they spent all their time fighting each other, and as a result the labour adminsitration wasn't held to account for some its, um, less good ideas. because even if they may have agreed with them, a more together and disciplined .opposition would have forced a rethink as a matter of principle. It's also why the current Labour crop are so dispiriting, too busy plotting to oust Corbyn to take on a Conservative adminstration which is asset stripping the country at an unprecedented rate, at the same time as failing the vast majority of its populace miserably.

I like able and competent people in all walks of public life, even the areas I don't agree with. It's how to get the whole damn thing to work. And as currently stands, I don't really see anything working, on either side of the Atlantic.

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