It’s going to be a vile and vicious next six months, America

Donald Trump too often seems to be running for Insulter in Chief instead of Commander in Chief.

“I would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!” Trump wrote Tuesday night on Twitter, after taking a major step toward becoming the 2016 Republican presidential nominee.

Clinton — the likely Democratic nominee — soon fired back on the same social media platform: ‘“President Trump’ is a dangerous proposition. Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio agree.” A short video followed, featuring those failed GOP candidates calling Trump a con artist, phony and narcissist.

From the sidelines, Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren contributed this much-seen tweet: “I’m going to fight my heart out to make sure (Trump’s) toxic stew of hatred & insecurity never reaches the White House.”

And folks, it’s only early May.

America for the next six looong months is in for a never-seen-before stretch of vile, repugnant campaigning on social media, in toxic ads that pollute their mailboxes and in what likely will be contemptible and repulsive television spots.

Trump’s spewing of hate toward fellow candidates for the highest office in the land has dramatically lowered the bar for what’s acceptable in a presidential race.

Clinton’s camp says Trump’s pugnacious behavior won’t get under her skin. Maybe. But he sure did drag plenty of GOP candidates down into the mud with him. Clinton may get sucked in, too.

Heaven help us all.

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 5:01 PM with the headline "It’s going to be a vile and vicious next six months, America."