The mid-term elections season is definitely out of control. My senses are assaulted with almost every political ad airing on the television. The untruths twisted into seemingly fact and the quotes from previous elections from ten years ago thrown out as current policy imperatives.
Of course, I am in the middle of two desperate campaigns one for governor of Florida and the other a senatorial race. The stakes are high for our country. But, I wondered why have those running for office gone so far off the rails and so far from the truth to retain their offices?
I found possible answers this morning in The Atlantic.
In an article titled: J. D. Vance and the Collapse of Dignity, the author maintains "American politics are now cruel burlesque." I tend to agree and might even table it the theater of the absurd.
Two paragraphs form the article highlight the descent of American politics into the abyss.
Americans once expected politicians to carry themselves with a seriousness that indicated their ability and willingness to tackle problems, whether poverty or war, that were too difficult for the rest of us. We elected such people not because we wanted them to be like us but because we hoped that they were better than us: smarter, tougher, and capable of being leaders and role models.
A few paragraphs later:Today, we no longer expect or even want our politicians to be better than we are. The new American right, however, has blown past the relatively innocuous populism of the past 40 years and added a fetid cynicism about almost everything related to public life. Not only are the MAGA Republicans seemingly repelled by the idea of voting for someone better than they are; they support candidates who are often manifestly worse people than the average citizen, so that they may slather their fears about their own shortcomings and prejudices under a sludgy and undifferentiated hatred about almost everyone in public office.
I remember a cruel joke from a few years ago that, sadly, has become too true:
How do you know a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.
Until we the voters determine to elect honest, hard-working, patriotic Americans devoted to the principles of the Constitution, we will continue to get lying, cheating, single issue (or less) scoundrels who will say or do anything to achieve office. And then we will wonder--why is our country failing?
Why?
Because We the People are not electing people with vision and a dedication to democracy. Become afraid when candidates tout they support freedom because inevitably they have redefined freedom as free from choice instead of free to choose.
The banner of The Washington Post is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Darkness is growing in our country and we who recognize it must work to overcome it. I see it in the mid-term campaigns, some are campaigning on issues while others are campaigning on fear. Fear promotes darkness.
When will it be over? Probably never. The struggle will continue because our democracy is under attack.
-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL
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