{"id":13993,"date":"2016-04-20T21:05:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T01:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13993"},"modified":"2016-04-27T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:49:29","slug":"politics-as-usual-trump-on-the-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-trump-on-the-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Trump on the Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am writing this column from a small cottage on the beach in the Bahamas; a short little getaway with a close friend and her lovely family for some much needed R and R. It is a glorious little quiet community on the beach in Abaco.
\nThere are few people around, just sun, sand and of course the gorgeous ocean of the Caribbean.
\nOne would think that all the way out here \u2013 a tiny place that takes a big and small plane ride to get to \u2013 we could truly get away from it all; no politics of any sort. But, alas it is not to be.
\nThe name Trump is still on the tips of the tongue of most the folks vacationing here. Argh!
\nI was hoping for a bit of Trump-free zone for a while (and Bernie-free too for that matter. His rantings about the one per cent are getting a bit much to take. Free school and health care for everyone! Hurrah! It\u2019s no wonder he\u2019s so popular with the \u201cyouth\u201d vote).
\nBut the outrageousness of this presidential primary campaign knows no bounds. I doubt there\u2019s a place on the planet where one could be free from hearing about Donald Trump.
\nIt\u2019s odd though; no matter who you talk to or where, it\u2019s hard to find anyone who supports his presidential bid \u2013 or Hillary either, I have to say.
\nMost folks I have spoken to have had pretty negative things to say about her bid as well.
\nSo, I am struck by the fact that despite their front runner status, they both have extraordinary \u201cunfavourable\u201d poll numbers.
\nOne has to question just who is voting for him them. Someone must be, and in large enough numbers to be out in front by a large margin.
\nOr, are they just winning because of the bizarre US presidential nominating process?
\nThe answer is yes.
\nThe system they have is a crazy mish-mash of caucuses, primaries, conventions and the like that has little semblance of order let alone true representative democracy.
\nSo, in this regard I do have to agree with Donald Trump (gulp! Yes, you read that right).
\nThe process is not fair. How could it be? Each state has its own way of doing things, few of which make any sense. Some states are winner take all, some are proportionate. Some assign delegates that are bound \u2013 that is, they have to vote for the \u201cwinner\u201d of their respective state primary or caucus. And some are unbound \u2013 that is they can vote for whomever they\u2019d like regardless of who \u201cwins\u201d the primary.
\nWhich supports Trump\u2019s point (and Bernie\u2019s, I guess, as well). It isn\u2019t fair. What\u2019s the point of having an election process if it doesn\u2019t mean anything in the end? Just window-dressing? How can the \u201cwinner\u201d not get the most delegates? It does smack of establishment-ism.
\nI disagree with Trump that it is deliberately geared against him. The rules, such as they are, have been in place for well over a year. The time to complain about them or affect change was before the campaign started, not at the end when there\u2019s a potential for you not to win.
\nAll that aside, all political processes \u2013 our own included \u2013 have vestiges from a time when they were designed to disenfranchise, to afford those already in power to hold onto it.
\nIt is time for a change.
\nAnd on that note, it\u2019s back to the beach for me. See you in a week!
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas I am writing this column from a small cottage on the beach in the Bahamas; a short little getaway with a close friend and her lovely family for some much needed R and R. It is a glorious little quiet community on the beach in Abaco. There are few people around, just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3DH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 16:47:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}