Dark Era of U.S. Politics
Distortion, distrust, and the impact on our country.
The other day, I got to thinking about our current political situation during this election cycle, and I found myself wondering what the Founders of our country would be thinking about our modern election process.
Not the technology, or sheer number of votes compared to their era, but the overall sentiment.
Surely there was some level of distrust in the early voting, and understandably so. This was all so new, and the only thing most people really understood was monarchies. But they voted, nonetheless, with vigor and excitement. It was the dawn of a new way forward for not only our country, but the world as other countries began to follow suit.
Today, We Vote with Venom
Both sides of the political spectrum are rushing to the polls, all the while pointing fingers at one another.
Democrats don’t trust Republicans because they have a candidate who cannot conceive of any reality where he actually loses, and therefore will not accept the loss. I think this distrust is pretty well-founded, considering Republicans are raising the most asinine litigation currently, “priming the pump” for an Election Day battle.
Republicans don’t trust Democrats because they feel like the election will be… stolen, I guess.
It seems that the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree on is that if Trump loses, he won’t accept the result. I can’t believe it has come to this.
Even worse, it has come to this and we accept it as our new normal! This is an embarrassing travesty of our political system, and the world is watching, collectively shaking their heads.
We need to be Careful
If the Republican Party doesn’t pivot from this “any election we lose is a stolen election” narrative, we will lunge further into a dark era of politics in the United States. This will trickle down to state government, and local cities and townships.
I can’t imagine this ever being the case, but it’s even possible that the Democrats retaliate against the Republicans by also claiming election fraud in any contest that they lose. Seems unlikely, but then again, so was Trump ever being president.
The danger I’m seeing is that we are spiraling into a culture of disbelief. We are being told not to believe what our ears and eyes tell us — but to trust politicians instead. This not only takes away our fundamental rights as citizens, it’s an assault against the very thing that makes us human: common sense and logical deduction.
Conspiracy theories are not a platform.
You cannot run a successful country on the notion of conspiracy theories. What matters are hard facts. Verified data is essential. And contrary to what Republicans would have us believe as of late, the opinions of experts (people who have dedicated their entire lives to a certain subject) carries more weight than the average person.
We are in a “war against intellectualism”. It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect gone wild. Someone needs to put an end to it, and that someone has to come from within the Republican Party leadership.
November is a pivot point.
If Donald Trump loses in November, then it sets up the perfect opportunity for us to get away from this scary, new form of political discourse. Republicans would have been dealt another blow in the third major election cycle. It would be clear that their messaging is not resonating. The country doesn’t want it.
But if Trump wins, that hope is thrown out the window. The most infuriating part about all of that is his win would be without the popular vote. That is, without the will of the people. Again.
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