Most Ridiculous Moment – March 6, 2016

“Civil War”

It was quite a day on the Sunday talk shows. We had several Nazi references, another argument for torture, and a conspiracy theorist who warned of an impending domestic war.

Failed 2012 candidate Mitt Romney appeared on Meet The Press, to say Donald Trump can't be President because he's a narcissist who only thinks about himself.

Also on Meet the Press, Stephen Henderson said Republicans have long sent coded messages on race, citing Ronald Reagan's speech in Mississippi. This prompted Mary Matalin to insist that this election is not 
about race, and conservatives do not 
consider themselves bigots or homophobes, but also that “Trump is expanding the electorate by getting people who are sick of being called bigots,” and to joke that when Henderson said that, “it just makes me 
want to choke you.”

David Brooks observed, “If we're going to get Trump, we might as well get the Nuremberg rallies to go with it,” and said democracy depends not on authoritarianism but compromise, to which Matalin said, 
“you can't be compromising on the 
Supreme Court. You can't do that.”

Lindsay Graham came to say out the current GOP leading candidate is running on xenophobia, race baiting, and religious bigotry, and said “I'd rather risk losing without Donald Trump than try to win with him because it will do more damage over time.” While he appeared to waver on Ted Cruz, he did say “whether you nominate Trump or Cruz, I think you get the same outcome. 
You know, whether it's death by being 
shot or poisoning?”

Kevin Spacey was also the show. Todd asked him if House of Cards goes too far in portraying politicians as nasty? Spacey said perhaps, but “then I turn on the news and 
I go, well actually we probably haven't 
gone far enough.”

Jon Kasich appeared to say he's closing fast in Michigan and insisted “Our strategy was always to survive and get to the north. And now we're getting to the north.” Also, the man who was in Congress for 18 years and worked at Lehman Brothers said, “we can't let a bunch of Washington insiders pick the nominee... because they don't like me.”

Then there's Donald Trump. Trump was on CBS' Face the Nation, insisting “I get along with people. I'm a unifier. I'm very much a unifier. And maybe people don't see that, 
but they will see that.”

Trump also argued strongly in favor of torture, saying “It's very tough to beat enemies that don't have any restrictions, all right? We have these massive restrictions.” and “we have become very weak and ineffective. I think that's why we're not beating ISIS.” and “I think we're weak. We cannot beat ISIS.” When host Jon Dickerson asked, “Isn't that separates us from the savages, rules?”

Trump said “We have beat the savages.” Dickerson asked, “by being savages?” Trump replied, “well, look, you have to play the game the way they're playing the game.”

But the most absurd moments cam on ABC's This Week. George Stephanopoulos had on Glenn Beck to discuss the election. Once on CNN, Beck now peddles conspiracy theories, involving Google, the Department of Education, the Boston Marathon bombing, martial law, and most recently, that Donald Trump's candidacy is a secret plot by big business to destroy the Tea Party.

Beck warned the Republican party ignored the people and created Trump, saying “The people are speaking clearly. And there's two ways to go: anger and nationalism, which has been done before in history.” Beck then said Trump is “playing to the lowest common denominator and to the anger in us” and compared him to Adolf Hitler in 1929.

However, he then warned that the Republican party should not deny Trump the nomination, saying, “I won't vote for Donald Trump ever, but I will stand with his right, because the people have spoken.”

He said it wouldn't be fair to deny Trump the nomination and while he might vote a third option, but “not the options of the party playing politics to break us apart at the convention. That leads to civil war on 
the floor and quite honestly it could lead 
to civil war in the country.”

So, this election is not about race, but the front runner is attracting who are sick of being called bigots; Kasich is an outsider and Trump is a unifier; ISIS are terrible savages so we should be just like them; and the media is seeking political wisdom from a conspiracy theorist who thinks Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler, but if the party doesn't let him take control of the party it will cause another American civil war.

And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

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