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People, not party, should pick nominee

Just a few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton and other Democrat Party leaders were chortling with glee at what they called disarray in the Republican Party. Why, with more than a dozen viable candidates for president at one time, the GOP was going to be fractured so badly it could not recover in time to defeat Clinton in November, she and others gloated.

Funny how that proverbial shoe so often switches to the other foot, isn’t it?

Now, Clinton and other Democrats are worried about their own disarray. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ success in his candidacy for president has startled and angered Clinton and company. Now they are concerned about party unity leading up to November.

In truth, what preoccupied Republicans for several months was not disarray but instead, the political system working as Americans expect it should. A variety of good candidates sought the Republican nomination for president. Little by little, the field was winnowed down by the primary election process. Now, the party has a presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Party machinery was clearly geared toward handing Clinton the nomination. But a funny thing happened on the way to the “inevitable” – Sanders capitalized on the same anger with the political establishment that helped Trump.

Indeed, both parties have fences to mend within their own ranks. But the difference is that Trump began the race as an upstart, while Clinton and other Democrat leaders assumed she had a lock on the nomination. It is no wonder, then, that so many Democrats have deserted her.

editorial@tribtoday.com

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