Poets in Residence

("The Revolt Against Decadence")

Is Donald Trump's a campaign in poetry? Is Bernie Sanders'? The answer to these questions is an unequivocal yes.

For all of the teeth grating, mind numbing language of the gutter from Mr. Trump, there is his underlying (overriding) message that we can, we will, be great again.  Forget the path, just know the result. And Mr. Sanders provides a vision, even if economically and politically unattainable of an America that is different and better tomorrow.

These candidates do not dwell on the realities of building the Great Wall or keeping all Syrian refugees in harm's way, of the costs of single payer healthcare or bringing Wall Street to its knees. Those are worries for another day, for the time when one must govern in prose.

For those like Hillary Clinton, or even a John Kasich, who speak of the political process, of the small steps and the hard climbs, there is detriment and deficit in trying to compete with those who dream the impossible dreams. 

From both ends of the political spectrum and with nothing like the soaring rhetoric and vision of Barack Obama,  Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders  share the title of this season's poets in residence.