Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton - Two Unconventional Candidates in May

Although the American people are speaking in the primaries, it’s not entirely clear what they’re saying; and with two unconventional candidates emerging in the presidential race, the grounds of the American political system appear to be shaky, leaving many with the feeling that something is likely to burst.

According to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, nearly 60% of American voters feel Donald Trump is unqualified to be president of the United States, with most voters even considering him to be the champion of the plutocratic class, which raises the question: considering these numbers, how on earth can Trump be leading overall in the polls? Ideas vary:

• It could just be one poll
• It could just be a temporary blip
• Or, it is because Americans so loathe the American political system, and so mistrust Hillary Clinton that they will elect Trump over their misgivings

No matter which way you look at it though, the recurrent theme among voters is the latter, that they trust Trump to bring needed change to Washington; and this fact alone may be all Donald Trump needs in order to reach the oval office -after all, just how many among the current Washington elite ever thought he would get this far?

Sam Wang says May polls are notoriously unreliable due to the fact that one party is still enduring an active nomination contest, and national polls don’t reach their February levels of accuracy until August.

If this is the case and we must set opinions and conjecture aside, the facts remain: after the Washington State Primaries, Trump is within 41 delegates of the number needed to become the Republican Nominee. While Clinton -who is 78 short- didn’t gain any delegates from this particular primary and no more delegates will be won until the last five states vote on June 7.

With Trump out ahead, Democrats are concerned about Republicans using their advantage to set the terms of the general election so they are rallying to align behind some talking points which attack Trump’s presidential competency, primarily that Trump worked hard to profit from the Housing Meltdown in 2008. Senator Elizabeth Warren -Democrat of Massachusetts- gave a speech Tuesday mirroring Clinton’s own talking points of accusing Trump of profiting from the Housing Crash of 2008. While Warren is the only Democratic Woman in the Senate who has not endorsed Clinton, the timing and subject of her comments are no coincidence as Democrats strive to rally and unify their party, saying “What kind of man would wish to profit from the misfortune of so many Americans; how could such a man be qualified to be President”.

Undeterred, and far from intimated, Trump defends himself as a businessman and claims to be an old pro at a tactic this country desperately needs to learn and understand: how to get a good result out of a very bad situation. “Make America Great Again” is the calling cry of his supporters, along with “Build that Wall”, heard at many of his rallies including the latest one at the Albuquerque Convention Center in New Mexico, which local police are now referring to as a riot.

Demonstrators in New Mexico threw bottles, burning t-shirts, and rocks at police officers, overturned trash cans and knocked down barricades; rocks were flying through the broken windows of the Albuquerque Convention center and broken glass was everywhere. It was Trump’s first stop in New Mexico, the nation’s most Hispanic state, where Governor Susana Martinez -the nation’s only Latina Governor and also head of the Republican Governor’s Association- remains harshly critical of Donald Trump and has yet to come out and endorse his run for the presidency. Martinez did not attend the riot where Trump pointed to the governor’s inability to rectify the amount of Hispanics on food stamps, saying that maybe he should run for the governor of New Mexico and get something done for a change. Martinez’s office considered much of these Trump statements to be pot-shots and defended themselves, stating clearly that their governor would not be bullied into supporting a candidate for the presidency, republican or not.

Whether it be Elizabeth Warren or Susana Martinez, or Paul Ryan for that matter, the prominent individual who has yet to endorse the candidate appears to be the issue at hand as both Clinton and Trump work to somehow involve these individuals in their campaigns. As Warren was clearly falling in line with Clinton with her attacks on Trump and the timing of her comments in relation to Clinton’s speech; while Martinez appears to remain steadfast and stubbornly against any kind of Trump support; and Ryan -according to the Bloomberg Politico Report- now seems close to endorsing his fellow republican.

Although Paul Ryan has openly condemned Trump for his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from the United States, and for not forcefully disavowing support from a former Klu Klux Klan leader, Ryan feels as if the people are speaking in the primaries in support of Donald Trump’s candidacy, and he wishes to unite the republican party by ending the standoff between them. With that being said, Ryan continues to call on Trump to control a dangerous pattern that continues to erupt at his rallies, an ominous reality that seems to follow Trump everywhere he goes, and that pattern of reality is violence.