Mad Donald

I was hoping to avoid the mention of Donald Trump in this, the 2016, election cycle. Like many other potential voters, I didn't take him seriously, in no small part due to his head-to-toe overall offensiveness. But, more notably, he just seemed like a joke; a publicity hound trying to bolster his lagging brand plastered on many-a-bogus businesses, with the ultimate PR stunt of throwing his hat, in this case a red baseball style one, into the proverbial presidential ring.With the media obliging by giving him all the free publicity a candidate could possibly want, his bantam cock antics went unchallenged.

There has been a rich history of joke candidates for various offices, including the highest, in this country. One of the most consistent of these characters is our beloved and iconic Mickey Mouse, who first popped up in the New York mayoral race of 1932, still a wee fellow of just four years. Mickey received just one vote in that race, tying with the infamous Al Capone. In 1960 in a Georgia congressional race a gorilla named Willie B. received 390 votes, outplaying Mickey, although the versatile mouse still had a presence. In fact, so prolific was Mickey's presence in Georgia politics that its legislature found it necessary in 1987 to pass a law that stated, "voters in Georgia would no longer be allowed to vote for Mickey Mouse in state election."

Mad Magazine, the satirical mainstay for all things tongue and cheek APB'd the voting public to consider Alfred E. Neuman, its fictitious freckle-faced and cheshire-grinning mascot cover boy, as a write-in candidate for every U.S. Presidential election from 1960 to 1980. Using slogans like, "You could do worse--and you already have," and "There are bigger idiots running for office," the magazine was quick to point out who the real clowns were. Hint: Not Alfred E. Neuman.

And yes, there appears to be a bigger idiot running now and the joke is running thin. To take "The Donald" as a serious opponent to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders makes me want to choke midway through a hard swallow. The only difference between Donald Trump and Mickey Mouse running for office, other than the obvious that one is a contemptible abomination of a human and the other is a classy cartoon mouse and one appears to represent his party and the other a write-in, is that one was a presumed joke and the other an obvious joke. Now, the joke may be on us.