Time to face the hard reality: Donald Trump is the Republican Presidential candidate and - what is worst - he has a shot at winning on November 8th.
The good news is that Cruz would have been way worst, as he would have turned the clock back of decades in terms of social and civil rights. Yet, digesting the fact the "The Donald" - dismissed with a laugh by mainstream media and intelligentsia alike less than a year ago - will be the GOP candidate, is going to take a while. Do not let wishful thinking cloud your judgment: Republicans are going to fall in line and fight for the Presidency.
Hillary is their ideal opponent: Republicans detest her and she will thus be a unifying factor for the GOP; she shares with Trump non-flattering below-30% ratings in terms of top leadership qualities such as being inspiring, consistent and visionary; she has a FBI investigation pending on her neck; last bit not least polls show Bernie would more easily beat The Donald.
So what now?
The Dem establishment is already increasing pressure on Bernie Sanders to exit the race early. Just like Clinton in 2008, he is not going to do so until the magic 2383 number is reached, possibly not including super-delegates, which means he may go all the way up to the Convention in July. The party will also keep pushing on Super Delegates, especially those up for re-elections in constituencies won by Bernie that are starting to #FeeltheBern, or at least the heat, from his supporters. Bernie devotees are already up in arms with the #DropOutHillary going viral.
The final result is likely to be that although Hillary would have probably won anyway, with the Dem establishment biased towards her, Bernie supporters will feel cheated, adding frustration to already angry feelings. Comes November, they are unlikely to buy her incremental changes, especially if they think she won because of an unfair race. When in 2012, the Italian Democratic Party's establishment maneuvered to prevent Matteo Renzi from winning the primaries - with tactics that strongly resemble those of the US Democrats today - they were severely punished in the subsequent general elections. The Italian Democratic Party leadership of the time is now history and Matteo is Prime Minister; as he once said: wind cannot be stopped with bare hands. The lesson is: beware messing up with an angry electorate.
Outside the Beltway, Americans are in fact very upset; even Democrats cannot properly see all the amazing good and recovery the Obama Presidency brought to the country. All they see is the American Dream dead and not much hope for the future. Where there are no good public schools, giving children a private education costs, at the primary level, more than attending a private university in Europe; as for College, well, that can go over $100,000 a year. Health is so expensive that preventive medicine is dramatically declining and death rates for middle class white Americans are increasing. Got a sever disease? If one is lucky enough to survive - according to Johns Hopkins University, medical errors are No. 3 cause of U.S. death - chances are that paying the medical bills will cost one's home.
In Europe, people are protesting against labor reforms, in the US a bare two-weeks holiday is the praxis, is, so is very limited sick and maternity leave - mostly unpaid of course. Being dismissed from a job "good bye and good riddance" is a common experience, even for those who are at the top of their game. Listening to Bernie Sanders talking about what he wants to do, one may think he is talking about an underdeveloped country, rather than the world's superpower.
The Democratic Party leadership is confident that voters will have no doubt in choosing between Hillary and The Donald: one of the Clinton's supporters main arguments is in fact that she has better chances to win in November. Yet, the European mess is a reminder that angered electorates hardly choose incremental changes over revolutionary change. The European experience also tells us that there is a share of the electorate who vote people like Trump, but do not say it laud, making polls and predictions far less accurate. Indiana is a case in point of how wishful-thinking-polls are misleading: mainstream media had Hillary prevailing by 5 points and she ended up losing by more than 5 percent; a 10% error altogether.
Indiana also showed that Hillary, contrary to Bernie, seems little able to catch the crucial vote of independents.
Is the #BustingBernie vs #BernieorBust the best strategy for the Democrats? What price will be payed if a part of the Dem electorate will feel cheated on? Wouldn't it be better for the Democratic Party to just play the honest broker, let the primaries naturally end and then push for a Clinton-Sanders ticket?
Judgment and the ability of prioritizing collective welfare are crucial qualities for a President. In 2008, President Barack Obama showed that by offering Hillary the State Department. Without her experience as Secretary of State, Hillary would probably not even be where she is today. Will she let her pride or the country's interest prevail?