Giant Meteor 2016 & The Will Of the Republican Party

Without question the funniest moment of my very long Monday occurred when I was behind the wheel of my SUV headed to the grocery store after work today.

I was behind this car and saw a blue bumper sticker on the back that read:

"Giant Meteor 2016 - Just End It Already".


Needless to say it totally cracked me up.

There I was cruising along Estates Blvd laughing (don't worry the speed limit is only 25 mph) with my left hand on the steering wheel and my right hand scribbling it down on the Post It Notes pad I keep in a dashboard compartment for just such occasions.

Apparently we have comedian/ actor Chris Rock and a couple of creative American Millenials to thank for this catchy slice of election-year wisdom.

Today was the first time I'd seen or heard of the bumper sticker promoting a large object from space for president, but according to an article that appeared on the Boston Globe Website back on June 17th, the slogan and sticker have been something of a "thing" on the internet for some time, but it really blew up two weeks ago to the day when Chris Rock sent out a photo of the bumper sticker to his 4 million-plus followers on Twitter.

Trump's running for president, why not a meteor?

As the Globe article states, the bumper sticker was the brainchild of a software engineer from Nashville, Tennessee named Ben Stucki who saw the image on Facebook, decided he wanted one and had 50 copies printed from the image he saw - people started buying them on Amazon, so he made more of them.

The actual idea came from 30-year old Preston Whited.


He's an employee of a kayak paddle company from Washington state who created the image based on Bernie Sander's campaign logo.

In just a few short words this hysterical meme captures the general feeling that most Americans have about this 2016 presidential campaign, namely that the choices for president are so unappealing that we'd be better off if giant meteor struck the Earth and just ended it all.

Obviously no one really wants a giant object from space to collide with the planet and end life as we know it, but it sums up the feelings of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents alike on the rather lackluster choices for 2016 - Donald and Hillary both have huge disapproval rates and just think back on that field of Republican presidential candidates; Scott Walker? George Pataki? Chris Christie?

Now obviously I'm politically biased but I think the message on the bumper sticker is far more applicable to the Republican party than it is to Democrats.

Trump swings in Scotland

Just consider any one of the many low-lights of Trump's trainwreck of a campaign.

Including most recently his bizarre press conference in Scotland when he was asked about the implications of the Brexit vote on Europe and the United States and proceeded to let loose and almost undecipherable stream-of-consciousness babble.



His attempt to comment on one of the most significant shifts in the global power structure in decades only made clear that he had no idea what Brexit was, and that he has little foreign policy grasp of the European Union (one of the world's largest economic trading blocs).

Seriously, read the actual transcript of his nonsensical answer as posted on WashingtonPost.com.

He was eviscerated on Twitter by Scottish citizens outraged after Trump didn't seem to grasp that while England voted to exit the EU, Scotland voted to remain - he only owns two golf courses and property there, you'd think he'd have figured out that they are separate nations with independent governments though both are part of the United Kingdom.

No wonder noted conservative pundit and columnist George Will announced he was leaving the Republican party last week; in large part due to Donald Trump being the de facto head of the GOP.

George Will

Frankly, of all the dimwit things that Trump has said or done that have been categorically ignored by the Congressional Republican party leadership, if Will's decision to "Rexit" and register as an independent doesn't cause a political red alert for the GOP, I don't know what will.

Over the years I've read many of George Will's columns, and disagreed with some and been flat out angered by others.


But I always respected him as a principled conservative who truly embraced, and tried to articulate his vision of conservatism. There's never been a doubt about his genuine love of this country, and he actually inspired and challenged me as a writer.

One of the first letters to the editor I had published in a newspaper years ago was an op-ed I wrote in response to a column this prolific author wrote extolling the values of traditional Western education and dismissing (what were then) nationwide calls from academics to incorporate a more multi-cultural slate of scholars, writers and philosophers into the college curriculum.

His opinions have certainly caused controversy, like back in 2014 when he wrote a column suggesting that female college victims of sexual assault enjoy "a coveted status that confers privileges".

Few would accuse him of being a moderate, but when you think of conservative intellectuals, Will is the real deal; a genuine thinker who's light years beyond button-pushing right wing intellectual phonies like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and D'nesh D'Sousza.

You won't find me weeping when the Republican party implodes if Trump is actually nominated at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but if a man like George Will stands up and says of the GOP, "This is not my party",  Republican leaders need to figure out a plan to deal with Trump before he sends the GOP crashing into oblivion like a giant meteor.

And they better figure it out fast.