Too Easy: How Republicans Would Tear Apart an Unvetted Bernie Sanders in the General Election
Bernie Sanders should have never gotten this far.
For
nearly eight months, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was able to skate
by thanks to a willing media in bad need of a horse race on the
Democratic side. Sure, it would be a historic first in our country for a
woman to be the first ever nominee from a major political party, but
that kind of history is so boring. There's no drama in having a
clear frontrunner, running a clean campaign, avoiding any major slip
ups or scandals all while running against a weak, inept, and
single-issue fringe candidate with no real legislative accomplishments
to his name. By giving the race the sense of being a "coronation" the
networks knew that the majority of viewers wouldn't be tuning it,
despite that opportunity to see what the history books will eventually
show as being a historical campaign. The media needed drama and the only
way to create drama was to create a sense that the race was much closer
than it actually was.
So like the good little Orwellian puppets
that they are, our media did everything it could to create a horse race
when one never existed. Sanders does well in Iowa and New Hampshire?
The media simply ignores the fact that the demographics
there play to Sanders' strengths. Sanders gets destroyed in South
Carolina? The media simply ignores the fact that it's clear he hasn't won over
the increasingly integral African-American voting bloc. Sanders
struggles to win over Latinos? The media simply ignores the fact that he
is unable to recreate
the Obama coalition that was so successful in 2008 and 2012. Sanders
wins a handful of states of Super Tuesday? The media simply ignores the
fact that Sanders faced an impossible uphill climb
to win the nomination from that point forward. Sanders wins 7 out of 8
primaries and caucuses in April? The media simply ignores the fact that
Sanders is still down 240 delegates with multiple closed primaries looming. Sanders gets his second upset win in Indiana? The media simply ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton didn't spend any money on ad buys in the state and had already begun to shift her resources for the general election.
Along
with simply ignoring basic delegate math, the media also had to bury
any stories that made Sanders look bad. Thanks to some clever
manipulation by the Sanders campaign themselves, they were able to
successfully do this by creating counter narratives to try and justify
the campaign's deceitful actions. Bernie Sanders caught stealing information from Hillary Clinton's voter files? Sue the DNC for shutting off the Sanders campaign's own access to their information as a punishment! Bernie Sanders flying to the Vatican to try and pander to New York's Catholic population? Claim it's because you've had a lifelong admiration for the Pope and simply couldn't pass up this opportunity! Bernie Sanders refusing to release more than one year of tax returns? Say that you'll do so when Hillary Clinton releases her full Goldman Sachs speech transcripts! Bernie Sanders' supporters creating a near-riot at the Nevada state convention? Blame the Democratic Party rather than taking responsibility for your supporters and your campaign!
Yet despite the media doing its best to create a sense of suspense, it's now painfully obvious to anyone not stuck in the cult of Bernie
that Hillary Clinton will unquestionably be the Democratic nominee for
president. Hillary's lead is insurmountable and she has significant
leads in both New Jersey and California,
the last two major delegates prizes this primary season. Despite being
less than a month away from history in having the first ever woman
officially clinch the nomination for a major political party in this
country, that news is still bad news for the media. That would mean
nearly a month and a half of no drama from either Republicans
or Democrats which our news media simply cannot have. With Donald Trump
now being the unquestioned nominee on the Republican side, it's up to
Democrats to create some sort of drama between now and the July
convention.
Fortunately for the media, they have a willing stooge in Bernie Sanders to do this.
Despite having no chance of winning the nomination, Bernie Sanders is now openly intent upon doing damage to Hillary Clinton. While Clinton rightfully asserts that she will be the Democratic nominee for president, Sanders still somehow and some way believes that he still has a chance.
Should he lose New Jersey and California on June 7th (which appears
more than likely) Sanders will have not only lost the popular vote by
over 3 million, the delegate count by over 300, and more states than
Clinton but he will also have lost any claim about having momentum
leading up to the convention. Were that to happen then the only case
Sanders would be left with would be the fact that certain polls show he would do better
in a head-to-head matchup against Donald Trump. However, this very
argument is flawed for a very obvious reason: an unvetted Bernie Sanders
would get absolutely torn apart by Republicans in a general election
campaign.
Don't believe me? What's the worst thing you've heard
about Bernie Sanders from the mainstream media over the past year? The
fact that he once supported Castro? The fact that he was unable to explain how he'd break up the banks in his New York Daily News interview? How he won't release his tax returns? How he refused to commit
to fundraising for down-ballot Democratic candidates for nearly ten
months? Chances are you've read more about Sanders' interactions with
the local Portland avian community than you have about criticisms of his
campaign and his voting record.
Republicans are keenly aware of this. It's why Donald Trump has stated he wants to run against
Bernie Sanders. He knows the kind of portrait Republicans would paint
with all the opposition research they have done. Being called 'Crazy Bernie'
would be the nicest thing Donald Trump and Republicans would say about
Bernie Sanders. They'd attack his background, his family, his voting
record, you name it. When all is said and done, they'd make Sanders look
like the second coming of Karl Marx, ready to create a world of poverty
and despair through Soviet-style communism. Most of us know that isn't
true, but the average voter does not. But that's what the general
election will be: reaching out to the average, low-information voter.
And unfortunately, Bernie Sanders' closet is filled with skeletons that
the mainstream media has gleefully ignored. Were he to actually be the
Democratic nominee, Republicans would without question unleash a barrage
of attacks that would invoke such titles as:
Bernie The Rapist
Think everything in Bernie's past is off-limits? Republicans know better. They know Bernie Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in
1972 describing the a woman enjoying being raped by three men. This was
not the work of a high school boy. Or a horny college student. This was
the work of a thirty-one-year-old man. With a child. If you think
Republicans wouldn't go after this essay in an attempt to hurt Sanders'
standing among women you'd be crazy. Republicans would plaster this
essay all over a series of ads to discredit Sanders support among women
voters and they'd do it without giving it a second thought.
Bernie The Bum
Think
Republicans wouldn't attempt to portray Sanders as a drain on the
system? Sanders collected unemployment through his mid-30s and did a series of odd jobs
including carpentry, teaching, working as a hospital aid, and working
for a nonprofit. At one point, he stole electricity from his neighbor
because he had failed to pay his own bills. At this time, Sanders also
shared custody of his son and quite possibly struggled to
pay child support. Think Republicans wouldn't try to portray Bernie as a
deadbeat dad? Then you clearly don't know Republicans.
Bernie's Disdain For Latinos
Think Republicans wouldn't attempt to lessen Sanders' support among key Democratic voting blocs like Latinos? In 1994, Sanders co-sponsored a bill
that would have allow low-level nuclear waste from Vermont to be
shipped to the poor Latino community of Sierra Blanca, Texas. Activists
from Sierra Blanca fought back for four years and even traveled 2,000
miles to Vermont to speak with then Congressman Sanders. Sanders'
response? He told the activists he didn't care
and that he had a re-election campaign to worry about. Republicans
would be certain that Sanders would be forever associated with the terms
'Sierra Blanca' and 'environmental racism.'
Bernie's Apathy Toward African-Americans
Besides
women and Latinos, African-Americans represent another essential part
of the Obama coalition needed to win a general election. Sanders is
proud of his early civil rights work
but don't think for a second that Republicans wouldn't remind the
voters that Sanders has been noticeably absent for the past
half-century. They'd point out how Sanders was "invisible" to African-Americans activists in Vermont and how civil rights icon John Lewis "never saw"
Sanders go to bat for civil rights issues while in Congress. Don't
doubt that Republicans wouldn't gleefully use these instances to portray
Sanders as someone who simply isn't invested in the African-American
community.
"Bernie The Bomber"
Think
Republicans wouldn't love to shatter Sanders' angelic reputation among
his core supporters? Sanders consistently touts his anti-war record. Yet
in 1999, he voted in favor
of NATO's military mission in Yugoslavia, much to the dismay of his
hometown supporters. In fact, his supporters were so upset that they
went to Congressman Sanders' office to speak to him or someone with his
staff. Sanders was in D.C. but the protesters were promptly arrested
without being given an audience. Yup, that's right. Civil rights hero
Bernie Sanders openly arrested protesters in his own congressional
office. Republicans could literally kill two birds with one stone by
using this instance to show Sanders and being pro-war and
pro-establishment at the same time.
Bernie The War Hawk
Sanders has also gone on record against excessive military spending. Yet Republicans would gladly point out how he openly supports
the military's $1.5 trillion F-35 boondoggle that epitomizes
superfluous military spending as well as perpetual war. Why does Sanders
support this? Because it brings jobs
to his home state of Vermont. And anything that brings jobs helps to
get Senator Sanders re-elected every six years which is much more
important than one's principled anti-war stance. Republicans would be
sure to remind everyone in the other 49 states that Sanders loves to
enrich his own pockets through war.
Calamity Jane
As we've already seen with Donald Trump, spouses are fair game in
the year 2016. Unfortunately, for Bernie Sanders, his wife Jane has
more than enough baggage for Donald Trump and Republicans to use. Not
only has she continued to profit off of the same nuclear commission involved in the Sierra Blanca case, but she also received a $200,000 golden parachute from Burlington College, where she served as president to a for-profit school that is scheduled to close later this month due to crushing debt. She also has been accused of bank fraud for
potentially having scammed the Catholic Church out of nearly $2 million
in a land deal. If Donald Trump would criticize a woman for her looks,
imagine what he'd do to someone who has a shady background concerning
business deals and personal finances.
Bolshevik Bernie
Republicans
know it's one thing to paint someone a certain way because of their
policies, but it's another one entirely to paint someone a certain way
because of their lifestyle. Bernie Sanders was an open supporter of
Communism in the 1980s. He honeymooned in the USSR and traveled to Cuba
in 1989 in an unsuccessful attempt to meet with Fidel Castro. Yet these
two instances pale in comparison to Sanders' interactions in Nicaragua.
Not only has Sanders gone on record in praise of the Sandinistas but he also attended an anti-American rally
where the crowd chanted for "death to the Yankees." Combine this nugget
of information along with Sanders' radical ideas on income inequality
and Republicans could easily paint him as an unpatriotic anarchist
hell-bent on destroying America.
Bernie The Crook
Don't
think for a second that Donald Trump wouldn't attack Sanders on
anything and everything related to finances. Unfortunately for Sanders,
his campaign has left a lot to be desired in this regard. Sanders and
his campaign have been flagged for multiple campaign finance violations including 639 pages worth this past month. These violations combined with the fact that the Sanders campaign has a mystery $10 million donation
from one single address in Washington, D.C. that has yet to be
accounted for. In addition, Sanders' long time friend and political
advisor Tad Devine is raking in a cool $800,000 a month
for his consulting firm. With this in mind, there can be no question
that Donald Trump would go after Sanders for being a hustler, a con man,
and a crook when it came to other people's money.
Bernie The HypocriteFor
nearly eight months, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was able to skate
by thanks to a willing media in bad need of a horse race on the
Democratic side. Sure, it would be a historic first in our country for a
woman to be the first ever nominee from a major political party, but
that kind of history is so boring. There's no drama in having a
clear frontrunner, running a clean campaign, avoiding any major slip
ups or scandals all while running against a weak, inept, and
single-issue fringe candidate with no real legislative accomplishments
to his name. By giving the race the sense of being a "coronation" the
networks knew that the majority of viewers wouldn't be tuning it,
despite that opportunity to see what the history books will eventually
show as being a historical campaign. The media needed drama and the only
way to create drama was to create a sense that the race was much closer
than it actually was.
So like the good little Orwellian puppets
that they are, our media did everything it could to create a horse race
when one never existed. Sanders does well in Iowa and New Hampshire?
The media simply ignores the fact that the demographics
there play to Sanders' strengths. Sanders gets destroyed in South
Carolina? The media simply ignores the fact that it's clear he hasn't won over
the increasingly integral African-American voting bloc. Sanders
struggles to win over Latinos? The media simply ignores the fact that he
is unable to recreate
the Obama coalition that was so successful in 2008 and 2012. Sanders
wins a handful of states of Super Tuesday? The media simply ignores the
fact that Sanders faced an impossible uphill climb
to win the nomination from that point forward. Sanders wins 7 out of 8
primaries and caucuses in April? The media simply ignores the fact that
Sanders is still down 240 delegates with multiple closed primaries looming. Sanders gets his second upset win in Indiana? The media simply ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton didn't spend any money on ad buys in the state and had already begun to shift her resources for the general election.
Along
with simply ignoring basic delegate math, the media also had to bury
any stories that made Sanders look bad. Thanks to some clever
manipulation by the Sanders campaign themselves, they were able to
successfully do this by creating counter narratives to try and justify
the campaign's deceitful actions. Bernie Sanders caught stealing information from Hillary Clinton's voter files? Sue the DNC for shutting off the Sanders campaign's own access to their information as a punishment! Bernie Sanders flying to the Vatican to try and pander to New York's Catholic population? Claim it's because you've had a lifelong admiration for the Pope and simply couldn't pass up this opportunity! Bernie Sanders refusing to release more than one year of tax returns? Say that you'll do so when Hillary Clinton releases her full Goldman Sachs speech transcripts! Bernie Sanders' supporters creating a near-riot at the Nevada state convention? Blame the Democratic Party rather than taking responsibility for your supporters and your campaign!
Yet despite the media doing its best to create a sense of suspense, it's now painfully obvious to anyone not stuck in the cult of Bernie
that Hillary Clinton will unquestionably be the Democratic nominee for
president. Hillary's lead is insurmountable and she has significant
leads in both New Jersey and California,
the last two major delegates prizes this primary season. Despite being
less than a month away from history in having the first ever woman
officially clinch the nomination for a major political party in this
country, that news is still bad news for the media. That would mean
nearly a month and a half of no drama from either Republicans
or Democrats which our news media simply cannot have. With Donald Trump
now being the unquestioned nominee on the Republican side, it's up to
Democrats to create some sort of drama between now and the July
convention.
Fortunately for the media, they have a willing stooge in Bernie Sanders to do this.
Despite having no chance of winning the nomination, Bernie Sanders is now openly intent upon doing damage to Hillary Clinton. While Clinton rightfully asserts that she will be the Democratic nominee for president, Sanders still somehow and some way believes that he still has a chance.
Should he lose New Jersey and California on June 7th (which appears
more than likely) Sanders will have not only lost the popular vote by
over 3 million, the delegate count by over 300, and more states than
Clinton but he will also have lost any claim about having momentum
leading up to the convention. Were that to happen then the only case
Sanders would be left with would be the fact that certain polls show he would do better
in a head-to-head matchup against Donald Trump. However, this very
argument is flawed for a very obvious reason: an unvetted Bernie Sanders
would get absolutely torn apart by Republicans in a general election
campaign.
Don't believe me? What's the worst thing you've heard
about Bernie Sanders from the mainstream media over the past year? The
fact that he once supported Castro? The fact that he was unable to explain how he'd break up the banks in his New York Daily News interview? How he won't release his tax returns? How he refused to commit
to fundraising for down-ballot Democratic candidates for nearly ten
months? Chances are you've read more about Sanders' interactions with
the local Portland avian community than you have about criticisms of his
campaign and his voting record.
Republicans are keenly aware of this. It's why Donald Trump has stated he wants to run against
Bernie Sanders. He knows the kind of portrait Republicans would paint
with all the opposition research they have done. Being called 'Crazy Bernie'
would be the nicest thing Donald Trump and Republicans would say about
Bernie Sanders. They'd attack his background, his family, his voting
record, you name it. When all is said and done, they'd make Sanders look
like the second coming of Karl Marx, ready to create a world of poverty
and despair through Soviet-style communism. Most of us know that isn't
true, but the average voter does not. But that's what the general
election will be: reaching out to the average, low-information voter.
And unfortunately, Bernie Sanders' closet is filled with skeletons that
the mainstream media has gleefully ignored. Were he to actually be the
Democratic nominee, Republicans would without question unleash a barrage
of attacks that would invoke such titles as:
Bernie The Rapist
Think everything in Bernie's past is off-limits? Republicans know better. They know Bernie Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in
1972 describing the a woman enjoying being raped by three men. This was
not the work of a high school boy. Or a horny college student. This was
the work of a thirty-one-year-old man. With a child. If you think
Republicans wouldn't go after this essay in an attempt to hurt Sanders'
standing among women you'd be crazy. Republicans would plaster this
essay all over a series of ads to discredit Sanders support among women
voters and they'd do it without giving it a second thought.
Bernie The Bum
Think
Republicans wouldn't attempt to portray Sanders as a drain on the
system? Sanders collected unemployment through his mid-30s and did a series of odd jobs
including carpentry, teaching, working as a hospital aid, and working
for a nonprofit. At one point, he stole electricity from his neighbor
because he had failed to pay his own bills. At this time, Sanders also
shared custody of his son and quite possibly struggled to
pay child support. Think Republicans wouldn't try to portray Bernie as a
deadbeat dad? Then you clearly don't know Republicans.
Bernie's Disdain For Latinos
Think Republicans wouldn't attempt to lessen Sanders' support among key Democratic voting blocs like Latinos? In 1994, Sanders co-sponsored a bill
that would have allow low-level nuclear waste from Vermont to be
shipped to the poor Latino community of Sierra Blanca, Texas. Activists
from Sierra Blanca fought back for four years and even traveled 2,000
miles to Vermont to speak with then Congressman Sanders. Sanders'
response? He told the activists he didn't care
and that he had a re-election campaign to worry about. Republicans
would be certain that Sanders would be forever associated with the terms
'Sierra Blanca' and 'environmental racism.'
Bernie's Apathy Toward African-Americans
Besides
women and Latinos, African-Americans represent another essential part
of the Obama coalition needed to win a general election. Sanders is
proud of his early civil rights work
but don't think for a second that Republicans wouldn't remind the
voters that Sanders has been noticeably absent for the past
half-century. They'd point out how Sanders was "invisible" to African-Americans activists in Vermont and how civil rights icon John Lewis "never saw"
Sanders go to bat for civil rights issues while in Congress. Don't
doubt that Republicans wouldn't gleefully use these instances to portray
Sanders as someone who simply isn't invested in the African-American
community.
"Bernie The Bomber"
Think
Republicans wouldn't love to shatter Sanders' angelic reputation among
his core supporters? Sanders consistently touts his anti-war record. Yet
in 1999, he voted in favor
of NATO's military mission in Yugoslavia, much to the dismay of his
hometown supporters. In fact, his supporters were so upset that they
went to Congressman Sanders' office to speak to him or someone with his
staff. Sanders was in D.C. but the protesters were promptly arrested
without being given an audience. Yup, that's right. Civil rights hero
Bernie Sanders openly arrested protesters in his own congressional
office. Republicans could literally kill two birds with one stone by
using this instance to show Sanders and being pro-war and
pro-establishment at the same time.
Bernie The War Hawk
Sanders has also gone on record against excessive military spending. Yet Republicans would gladly point out how he openly supports
the military's $1.5 trillion F-35 boondoggle that epitomizes
superfluous military spending as well as perpetual war. Why does Sanders
support this? Because it brings jobs
to his home state of Vermont. And anything that brings jobs helps to
get Senator Sanders re-elected every six years which is much more
important than one's principled anti-war stance. Republicans would be
sure to remind everyone in the other 49 states that Sanders loves to
enrich his own pockets through war.
Calamity Jane
As we've already seen with Donald Trump, spouses are fair game in
the year 2016. Unfortunately, for Bernie Sanders, his wife Jane has
more than enough baggage for Donald Trump and Republicans to use. Not
only has she continued to profit off of the same nuclear commission involved in the Sierra Blanca case, but she also received a $200,000 golden parachute from Burlington College, where she served as president to a for-profit school that is scheduled to close later this month due to crushing debt. She also has been accused of bank fraud for
potentially having scammed the Catholic Church out of nearly $2 million
in a land deal. If Donald Trump would criticize a woman for her looks,
imagine what he'd do to someone who has a shady background concerning
business deals and personal finances.
Bolshevik Bernie
Republicans
know it's one thing to paint someone a certain way because of their
policies, but it's another one entirely to paint someone a certain way
because of their lifestyle. Bernie Sanders was an open supporter of
Communism in the 1980s. He honeymooned in the USSR and traveled to Cuba
in 1989 in an unsuccessful attempt to meet with Fidel Castro. Yet these
two instances pale in comparison to Sanders' interactions in Nicaragua.
Not only has Sanders gone on record in praise of the Sandinistas but he also attended an anti-American rally
where the crowd chanted for "death to the Yankees." Combine this nugget
of information along with Sanders' radical ideas on income inequality
and Republicans could easily paint him as an unpatriotic anarchist
hell-bent on destroying America.
Bernie The Crook
Don't
think for a second that Donald Trump wouldn't attack Sanders on
anything and everything related to finances. Unfortunately for Sanders,
his campaign has left a lot to be desired in this regard. Sanders and
his campaign have been flagged for multiple campaign finance violations including 639 pages worth this past month. These violations combined with the fact that the Sanders campaign has a mystery $10 million donation
from one single address in Washington, D.C. that has yet to be
accounted for. In addition, Sanders' long time friend and political
advisor Tad Devine is raking in a cool $800,000 a month
for his consulting firm. With this in mind, there can be no question
that Donald Trump would go after Sanders for being a hustler, a con man,
and a crook when it came to other people's money.
The
last line of attack Republicans use would be a culmination of
everything Sanders has said or done throughout his political career.
They'd point out that Sanders has railed against super PACS but is being openly supported by the National Nurses United. They'd point out that Sanders went on the picket line to support Verizon workers but he uses Verizon at his campaign headquarters. They'd point out that Sanders has spoken out against Boeing but that he has accepted over $72,000 from them this election cycle alone. They'd point out that Sanders criticized Hillary Clinton for supporting the 1994 Crime Bill but Sanders himself expressed no regret in actually voting for the bill. They'd point out that Sanders claims to be against the NRA but was supported by them for his first successful congressional run in 1990. They'd point out that Sanders claims to be able to work across the aisle but that his blind ideology caused him to vote against the Amber Alert system. They'd point out that Sanders supports universal health care but it failed in his home state of Vermont due to high costs. They'd point out that Sanders has consistently bashed Democrats, including President Obama, and is admittedly using the party for his own personal gain. And, perhaps most damaging, Republicans would point out how Sanders has claimed to be able to save families money but has openly admitted that "we will raise taxes" in order to enact his agenda.
So
that's the Bernie Sanders Republicans would present to us over the next
five plus months. A womanizing, hypocritical, radical who along with
his wife have fleeced the American public for both exposure and
financial gain. An inept Senator who has done nothing for Latinos,
African-Americans or other core Democratic voting blocs that he has
professed to care deeply about. A closet war hawk, who loves war when it
benefits his constituents, loves guns when it helps get him elected,
and who will blatantly ignore or even arrest those who have the audacity
to question his motives. A man whose past has more questions than
answers and who lived off unemployment for 13 years as he attempted to
find a way to monetize his radical views. A man who willing to say or do
anything to become elected for a "political revolution" that he
completely ignored for the first 73 years of his life.
That
Bernie Sanders would get undeniably obliterated by Donald Trump in the
general election. Because unlike the media, Trump would willing use this
information in the way described above. Trump wants to win and win
badly and as we've seen with the Republican primary, he is willing to
stoop to any level to do so. The rules of political engagement have been
thrown out the window in the year 2016 and there is no doubt that
Bernie Sanders would not be able to win this new, unregulated game.
Whereas Hillary Clinton has the proven ability to rise above the fray,
Sanders is irascible and erratic and cannot handle being verbally
attacked or questioned, something Trump excels at. Combine that with the
fact that Trump would certainly bully Sanders through low blows and
crude remarks and you have the ingredients for a situation where Sanders
would almost certainly be unable to defend himself on the national
stage.
And that ultimately is why Sanders' argument in favor for
his polling against Donald Trump holds no water. The American public is
simply unaware of Sanders' background, even after him having been in
the public eye for 13 months. Ninety-nine percent of Latinos don't know
the significance of Sierra Blanca but if Bernie Sanders were to be the
nominee you can certainly count on that number being cut in at least
half. The same can be said of Sanders and his rape essay with women or
Sanders and his inability to reach out to African-Americans. By hearing
these targeted attacks, these core Democratic voting blocs would be less
likely to turn out in a general election. Combine that with the fact
that many low-information voters easily confuse communism with socialism
and would be scared to vote for a socialist and you can easily see how
Bernie Sanders would in no way be a stronger candidate than Hillary
Clinton in the general election. Despite what any poll states in May
about any hypothetical general election matchup in November, there's a
lot to be said of the fact that Hillary Clinton has been excessively
vetted so both her and her campaign are ready for what Donald Trump will
throw at them over the next five months. The same unfortunately cannot
be said for Bernie Sanders.
And that is why Sanders' claim that he is the stronger candidate against Donald Trump is a completely ridiculous argument.
