The presidential candidate of Midwestern nostalgia, Ohio governor John Kasich, is a nice man. Unfortunately, the 2016 election cycle is a meat-grinder: equal parts unpredictability and contentiousness, not decency. Therefore, “nice guy” candidates like the highly likable and eminent Dr. Ben Carson, in the same Kasich mold, trail badly in the polls. In any case, the electorate is disillusioned by the establishments of both political parties, as well as the propagandist, one-sided MSM that carries the Democrats’ swill of half-truths, misleading statements by omission, and outright cover for lies (like Joe Biden’s 1992 “misunderstood” objection to an end-term Republican president making a Supreme Court nomination). All under Mr. Obama’s golf-playing watch: 10 trillion in additional debt; almost 8 more years of economic downturn; 93 million able-bodied Americans unable to find employment; Democrat’s pandering to Radical Islam, illegal aliens and Black Lives Matter; Europe awash in 60 million migrants and the Middle East on fire with terrorism. And lest I forget our pro-Islamic president’s crowning legacy: the high probability proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East under the control of Iranian ayatollahs.

To any clear thinking person, is it any surprise that everything is “throw the bums out?” (This means you too, House Speaker Paul Ryan, with your “fresh start” two trillion dollar budgetary capitulation to Democrats.) In 2016, it takes no genius to realize that voters are fed up to their eyeballs. Consequently, Kasich’s fond Americana of homemade apple pies or “I Love Lucy” reruns is out-of-step with the timbre of the country. The long-suffering silent majority is awake, and the political landscape rightfully trembles: a mobilized army is at the Republican ballot box. This unique phenomenon (with obvious causes and contrarily unforeseeable results) is the real life manifestation of “Network” fictional newscaster-prophet Howard Beale’s justified rage at the system. Simply put, like him, we’re “mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Make no mistake: This is a year of unprecedented, hardscrabble political blood-sport. Therefore, genteel non-brawlers for the presidency like Mitt Romney (who had his chance four years ago) not only need not apply, they should keep silent by invoking Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment of not speaking ill of fellow Republicans, even primary-leading Donald Trump. After all, we don’t need three million uninspired conservatives staying home as they did for the “elder statesman of 2012” who gifted Mr. Obama his disastrous second term.

Beyond that, it is a mistake to assume the “mad as hell” ire is just a “guy” thing. Historically anti-suffrage Democrats bray today about unfairness to women such as the gender pay-gap, but in Hillary Clinton’s State Department (that mysteriously “lost” $6 billion), as in Mr. Obama’s White House, the hypocrisy of paying women less on average is still firmly entrenched. Yet, outrageously, it is not Democrats who are being demonized for their real life records of actual economic discrimination. It’s the aforementioned nice guy, John Kasich, whose innocuous statement (“of many women who left their kitchens to go out and to go door to door to put up yard signs for me”) relates to his memory of first running for political office in 1978.

His words are not descriptive of his current view of the role of women in 2016. This rabid MSM distortion is exactly what I mean by the press’s “misleading statements.” Rather than faithful and objective reporting decades long gone, the fourth estate intentionally omits context — and actively misconstrues what is said — to mean something never intended. It is also no coincidence that all of these yellow journalistic “dirty tricks” benefit Democrats. How else could a scandal-laden, habitual liar (under as many as three federal investigations for corruption and influence-peddling) be a lock for her party’s presidential nomination?

In psychological terms this disgraceful political dynamic is classic projection. Blaming “others,” specifically Republicans, for the precise mind-set, behavior and policies that they themselves are guilty of. In any case, if it is acceptable to take Kasich to task for his off-the-cuff statement regarding a woman’s political role in 1978, it is fair game to also mention a highly relevant front-running Democrat’s example. Of course, I coyly refer to 1998’s “Zipper-gate” scandal: Hillary’s spouse Bill and his paramour, the then blue dress-wearing 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky. My point: Seduced by a powerful older man (a U.S. president no less) was that impressionable young woman championed by Hillary — today’s “women’s rights icon” — or mercilessly criticized by her as a “narcissistic loony toon.”

The subsequent DNA evidence of Bill’s extra-marital dalliance proved Hillary’s assessment untrue (as with her future, similar misstatements on Benghazi, Server-gate and “Clinton Cash”). Yet, propped up by the media (same as Obama), her false narrative as the “wronged wife” persists to this day. Indeed, Hillary’s history of withering attacks on the cadre of women of Bill’s ‘90s “bimbo eruption” demonstrate the pair are no respecters of anything related to women. Further, politicians with the Clinton surname are much more deserving of a prison stint rather than a “rosy” reward of taxpayer-funded habitation in the White House.

All of the above demonstrates that American politics is a dirty, ego-driven business. Unfortunately, the kind and well intentioned get crushed underfoot. The unfair treatment of Kasich (and Carson) is a case and point. There is no room in the current political climate for these men of authenticity. However, as a voice of reason, the role of vice president remains a real possibility to temper the Machiavellian passions of the next U.S. president.

David L. Hunter is on Twitter and blogs at davidlhunter.blogspot.com. He has previously been published in multiple in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, FrontPage Mag, and extensively in Canada Free Press and American Thinker.