More On The Drift Towards Partisan Realignment

At one point Trump was sending out feelings to see if Mark Cuban, an actual self-made billionaire, would run with him. Cuban laughed at the prospect and this weekend endorsed Hillary in Pittsburgh, his hometown, mentioning along the way that Trump has gone batshit crazy. Cuban is friendly with Trump-- they have many similarities-- and says he "told him directly, at some point you have to learn, at some point you have to read and that that job is all about uncertainty and if you don't do the work, that is not good for this country. And he just doesn't do the work." At the event he ripped on Trump: "You know what we call a person like that-- the screamers, the yellers, the people that try to intimidate you? You know what we call a person like that in Pittsburgh? A jagoff. Is there any bigger jagoff in the world than Donald Trump?" He baited the Trumpanzee by saying his own TV show, Shark Tank "kicked The Apprentice's ass," something that is sure to get Trump tweeting any second now.

"In Hillary Clinton's America, the American Dream is alive and well," said Cuban, who isn't much of a political donor but has given 6 times more to Republicans than to Democrats. "There is no place that knows that better than Pittsburgh because we are an American Dream city." At one point he had claimed that Trump's campaign was "probably the best thing to happen to politics in a long long time." He describes himself as a libertarian who wants a social safety net, although he's flirted with joining the GOP. Well; no more flirting... he's found an ex-Republican who calls herself a Democrat but who has a similar middle-of-the-road policy perspective that he has.

Turns out, the Houston Chronicle wasn't the only newspaper to rush to endorse Hillary after watching the two conventions. Up in New Hampshire, the Concord Monitor's editors not only endorsed Clinton, they made a compelling case for why Republicans should vote for her. They began with a progressive vision, even citing how Bernie has at least appeared to have influenced her.

Clinton wants to rebuild America’s infrastructure, and in the process “pass the biggest investment in new, good-paying jobs since World War II.”

She wants to work with Bernie Sanders “to make college tuition free for the middle class and debt-free for all.”

She wants to make it easier for those who dream of opening a small business to get credit, and to invest in job training so anyone who wants a good job can get one.

And on and on. Her speech was full of dreams and aspirations for the next phase of American life. But unlike her opponent, Clinton is grounded in reality.

If every voter had the chance to sit down one-on-one with Clinton and Trump to ask them how they would accomplish all they promise, they would hear Clinton speak with intelligence and authority. If Trump has that ability, he has kept it hidden. Not once during his campaign has he spoken about any issue with anything resembling deep understanding. Instead, he promises to surround himself with smart people. What he doesn’t get is that a president must possess the wisdom to know what advice is in the nation’s best interest and what advice could cost American lives and livelihoods.

Unlike most voters, we had an opportunity to sit down with Clinton to talk about policy, and her depth of knowledge on every single issue we covered was astounding.

We also sat down with Jeb Bush, and he’s the same way. He is much more comfortable rolling up his sleeves and diving into health care or tax policy than trying to convert complicated ideas into campaign-friendly soundbites and catch phrases. And Lindsey Graham, too. Our discussion with him focused almost exclusively on ISIS and the upheaval in the Middle East. When Trump says he knows more about ISIS than the generals, it’s laughable; if Graham said it, which he never would, it would be a difficult claim to disprove. And then there’s John Kasich. Ask him about Ohio’s economy, and his eyes light up. He doesn’t have much of an appetite for Republican red meat-- he prefers to discuss job creation and balanced budgets.

All three can run policy circles around Trump, but they weren’t very good at insults, tweets and slogans short enough to fit on the front of a baseball hat, so they never made it to the convention stage. For whatever reason, Republican voters wanted a simple candidate this time around and that’s what they have.

We just can’t understand how a Republican who supported Bush, or Kasich, or Graham can vote for Trump when they have a kindred spirit in Clinton. We don’t understand how a Republican who supported George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon or Dwight Eisenhower-- or George W. Bush, for that matter-- can vote for Trump.

Beyond party affiliation, Trump has little in common with any past president. All the nation’s great political leaders have been policy people-- just like Clinton. And despite what Trump would have you believe, that’s worked out pretty well for America.

Not a real Democrat

Moderate Republicans like Mark Cuban and Hillary Clinton aren't necessarily real Democrats, even if they become partisan brawlers. Most ex-Republicans who go blue, turn out to be mainstays of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who destroy the party's foundations from within-- like Florida numbskull Patrick Murphy has proven in Congress. A rare exception is Elizabeth Warren, who started out as a Republican but was too intellectually honest and rigorous to go the New Dem or Blue Dog route. But... a very rare exception. Most of the Republicans who have made the jump are pure garbage when it comes to policy and-- once they get recruited to run and elected to Congress courtesy of conservative Democrats like Steve Israel, Debbie Wassermann Schultz, Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer-- just vote with their old teammates most of the time anyway, the way Brad Ashford (NE), Patrick Murphy (FL) and Filemon Vela (TX) do. Currently, the DCCC is trying to pass off "ex"-Republicans Monica Vernon (IA), Charlie Crist (FL), Tom O'Halleran (AZ), Mike Derrick (NY), and Randy Perkins (FL) as Democratic candidates for House seats. Tap the thermometer and you'll find real Democrats who won't have to be cajoled into supporting progressive legislative initiatives in Congress: