So election day is finally here. I’m not sure why, but elections, particularly presidential elections, seem to bring out the worst in us. I don’t remember this being true when I was growing up. I remember Republicans and Democrats. We don’t have that anymore. Now we have friends and enemies.
The side that I like represents everything that is good and true and wholesome and American. The side that you like represents consummate evil, falsehood and betrayal. Can we just sit down and debate the issues? No, because everything you say is a lie and a direct threat to my family, my health, and the future of our great country, so I must shout you down so that you cannot be heard.
Of course, the candidates feed off of this. They know full well that most of us don’t have the time and/or the ambition to delve into the issues in a comprehensive way. They know full well that the great majority of Americans will cast their vote based on broad perceptions. Perceptions that may, or may not, be accurate, but which the candidates will try to promulgate nonetheless.
How else to explain the brutally personal TV ads which accuse candidates of everything from being senile to not caring if Americans die of coronavirus? The allegations are then denied in a reply ad, and then reiterated in the next one.
You see, it doesn’t really matter if the accusations are true. Only that they help to reinforce your broad perception of the candidate as being incompetent, uncaring and misguided, if not downright evil.
I am naïve enough to think there was a time when we could at least rely on the national news media to walk down the center of the road, to objectively interpret the noise and sift through the lies and half-truths. Where have you gone Walter Cronkite? Huntley and Brinkley? Sam Donaldson? Alas, today it seems clear most national outlets have chosen a side. The tilting of their coverage toward the political philosophy of their chosen side of the aisle has never been more obvious. Their newscasts are now more a pep rally than an analysis.
So into this morass we cast our vote. We hold our collective noses and pray we make the correct choice for our country. Deep down inside we all want the same thing. We want what’s best for America. Come Wednesday morning when the ballots are counted and the electoral votes are awarded, we will have our president for the next four years. Then could we all be friends again?
No matter who wins, it won’t be the end of our country as we know it. Our founding fathers were incredibly wise and constructed our government with so many checks and balances that good old democracy is not going away any time soon. The country will go on…..at least until the next election, when once again the destruction of our great nation will be at hand. (sigh)