Reprinted from Wallwritings
It is still early in the U.S. presidential nomination races.
It is not too early, however, to harbor a pretty strong suspicion that on November 8, the election will provide a choice between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
Of course, surprises could emerge that could lead voters to create a different pairing for November 8. Democrat Bernie Sanders, a secular Jewish radical socialist, could face Marco Rubio, now emerging as the Republican establishment candidate.
Given those competing scenarios, what will American voters do?
One answer may be found in the observation, often attributed to Winston Churchill: "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing -- after they've tried everything else."
What will be the right thing to do on November 8? As the kid in the back seat keeps asking, "are we there yet?" Absolutely not. The journey ahead is filled with turns and dips before each individual voter finally decides, driven by heart and/or head, preferably both.
Will voters make a disastrous decision? Or will they choose a leader who, at least, has the potential to pull the nation out of its current political mire?
Nine months out, we must Go Set a Watchman (rest in peace, Harper Lee) to guide individual voters. And always in politics, a wise "watchman" will caution: Be alert for surprises.
That alertness demands nothing less than urging voters to look outside the box -- or the narrative frame -- into which the public is jammed by the mainstream media (MSM).
In an essay on the 1966 film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, critic Roger Ebert writes about that narrative frame. He begins:
"A vast empty Western landscape. The camera pans across it. Then the shot slides onto a sunburned, desperate face. The long shot has become a closeup without a cut, revealing that the landscape was not empty but occupied by a desperado very close to us."
In those opening frames, Ebert continues, Italian Director Sergio Leone established a rule he follows throughout the film.
"The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots."
With appreciation to Ebert and Leone we must ask, what surprises lurk in the presidential race over the next nine months?
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