The race for president unfolding with Shakespearean delight

Editor: “A pox on both your houses!” The Montagues and Capulets of Shakespeare’s Rome and Juliet exasperated friends of both families — and led to some deciding they wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the fractions fellows.

North America was still a mysterious place to the English of the Bard’s time. It makes for delicious speculation to imagine what he would write about the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. But perhaps the playwright’s fictional example influenced the decision by big-money right-wing donors to decide this is one year they’ll zip up their wallets.

According to Gabrielle Levy, writing for U.S. News and World Report on May 19, Donald Trump’s success — and the weakness of the Libertarian Party — has persuaded the right-wing moneybags to keep those money bags closed.

She wrote: “David and Charles Koch ... aren't going to pour cash into the thirdparty bid of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson — and reportedly won't spend a dime on GOP candidates in 2016.

“A spokesman for the Kochs on Thursday contradicted a report ... that they planned to spend ‘tens of millions of dollars’ to support Johnson, who is all but assured to win the Libertarian presidential nomination.”

The brothers’ decision is positively Shakespearean.

Of course, the Bard was such a keen analyst of human behavior that his works supply a quote for every occasion. But this time the parallels to the actions of characters in Romeo and Juliet, as well as the Merchant of Venice and a few other plays, are almost eerie.

Has someone invented a time machine and we haven’t been told?

Nahh, that’s about as ridiculous as most of Trump’s ideas about the American Presidency.

The Koch brothers are simply realists. They aren’t! invited to a party hosted by Hillary Clinton, the probable nominee of the Democratic Party. In the less-likely case of Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic nod, the Koch Bothers would be advised to move to Canada.

If their money won't buy anything useful, the Koch Brothers won't play.

Makes perfect sense. And provides a gleam of hope about the future of American politics.

Who will become today's Bard — and write the ultimate political play? LANGE WINCKLER Lodi