I am purposely writing this before the outcome of the 2020 election because, regardless of how it actually plays out, I want to express my feelings before I am sure of where we are going.
The last five years, especially, have been very disillusioning. I know that politics are always something that creates divides between people that sometimes do not have any reason or purpose. In fact, reason often is sacrificed in order to support a particular political agenda. I have seen this all of my life but never more so than in the last five years.
Some Background
As a case in point, during the Nixon Administration enough members of the Republican Party joined together with the members across the aisle to insure that a fair hearing was given to the issues that Nixon was forced to resign soon after safely winning reelection.
Admittedly, times have changed. Starting with the moral majority – which was neither – a hard divide was created between the country as a whole. This was exacerbated by such things as biased journalism via Fox News and by the popularity of such pundits as Rush Limbaugh who’s form of commentary was to foment hate, distrust, and name-calling.
The first example of the how far we had gone manifested itself to me when in 2000 during the recount issues surrounding the Bush-Gore race. When I was upset about the efforts to block a recount in Florida, one of my so-called friends said “I don’t care! As long as Bush wins.” This was my first experience of someone who I thought was fair-minded who was willing to see their candidate win at any cost.
Leading up to 2016 Election
I guess we knew we had a problem leading up to the 2016 election. The United States Senate had become an arm of the Republican Party. They had decided to run the Senate, and thus the United States, for the benefit of the Republican Party with no regard for the country as a whole. They disregarded long-standing tradition, practices and procedures in order to preempt the powers of the Presidency and promote the agenda of the Republican Party. The most egregious act was not confirming a new Supreme Court nominee; as proven in 2020. However, if that were the only example it would be bad enough but it was not. They refused to consider bills that emanated from the Democratic Congress or the White House for over a year. If they had been my children, they would have been sent to bed without their supper for their actions.
Special Note – Trump
A lot of this article is based upon Donald Trump. He is not a good man. I believe that, if examined by a reputable psychiatrist, he would be adjudged to suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, if not other mental issues. In the words of others, he is Bat-Shit Crazy. By any measure, he is not fit to govern the country. I do not care about his political point of view. I do not care about his political agenda. He is not fit to be President.
We have had unfit Presidents before. Lord knows that is true. George W. Bush comes to mind. So does Jimmy Carter (a great man – a pretty ineffective President). But each of them had sanity on their side, even if the office was too much for them. And they all seemed to try to be President. Trump does not.
Trump’s only real agenda has been, from day one, what is in it for him and how does he look doing it. Keep in mind the first communication as President was to lie about the size of the turnout for his inaugural.
His inability to lead has manifested itself in his mishandling of the Pandemic. I am not saying anyone would have done a great job. Hell, I could condemn Governors, Democrat and Republican, across the country for their mishandling; and I have. The difference is that not only has he mishandled the Pandemic he has not learned from the mistakes; then he takes credit for the mistakes which he calls successes.
Disillusionment – Politicians
Now to the disillusionment of the politicians. In a way, given the runup to the election it should not have been a total surprise but it has been. Both parties had been fighting a turf war regarding Trump.
Admittedly, I side with the Democrats but I am upset that they address it as an attempt to gain political ground against the Republican Party. That is not the issue. While I am a Liberal and a life-long Democrat, I respect the Republicans I know (at least up until now) and understand the value of a two-party system. This is not about bringing down the Republicans. It is about removing the closest thing America has ever had to Caligula. But the Democrats cannot look past political gain.
The Republican politicians, at the same time, find it essential to continue to have their “man” in power regardless of the consequences. These are educated professionals. They know he is insane. Yet, with rare exception, they close ranks around him and back even his more insane actions and deeds; spending countless hours explaining them away and giving some form of spin to his actions.
I see that many of them are trying to distance themselves from their association with Trump during this election cycle as they are facing a backlash in many of their states and districts. They are trying to waffle in strange ways. Trying to “support” Trump for the sake of the Republican Party and for the sake of die-hard Republicans who do support Trump. At the same time, they are trying to get enough supporters to vote for them that would not vote for Trump for spear catcher.
Disillusionment – Voters
I can almost forgive voters in 2016. Even though the facts were there, often in his own words, people can sometimes be forgiven for not paying enough attention when it is theoretical. But now there is no excuse for supporting this guy. Yet according to all polls, he has in excess of 40% support and it has remained at that level for a long time. While not enough to win in any election except in America with its Electoral College, this is enough to give him a chance. I have tried and tried to understand how this is so,
With Trump’s constant tweets and self promotion, I cannot see how anyone can be unaware of him and his outrageous actions unless they live in the wilderness or under a rock; neither of which should contribute to these support numbers. Thus my disillusionment.
So I looked at where these numbers are coming from:
- The people that agree with his political point of view. These are the racists, White Supremists, anti-immigrants, and misogynists that are out there. They are out there. The most obvious are such groups as KKK, Proud Boys, skinheads, etc. And keep in mind, Donny has never condemned or disavowed any of them. Quite the opposite, in fact. Lord know how big this group is. But it is far bigger that I expected or wanted it to be.
- There may be some people who will proclaim that they agree with Trump’s views and disavow the racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic proclamations. But that does not fly. If you agree with this POS, you have to buy the whole package.
- So-called Christians. I say it this way because, going back to the “Moral Majority”, the organized Christian movement in America was coopted by an extreme right-wing coalition of Christian leaders. These leaders decided to firstly measure every politician on two issues; their support of anti-abortion laws and their support of anti-homosexual laws. As the Republican Party embraced these platforms; after all these were popular in the South where their stronghold was and where Church attendance was high. Thus, in a few short years, these so-called Christians have become an unofficial arm of the Republican Party. They support Republican regardless of all other issues without rhyme or reason.
- Life-long Republicans who will vote Republican regardless of who is running. No reason, no question, no argument.
- Anti-Democratic candidate, in this case anti-Biden. It wouldn’t matter really who was running. They say they are voting for the person, but they always seem to find some reason to find unredeemable fault with the Democrat and ways to redeem the Republican. Really, they are Life-long Republican who will not admit it.
- Pro-economy (or something else). They like how things are going now and attribute this to the President, however innocuous and will vote for Trump because the economy is going so damned well. Right.
Disillusionment – Voters – Special Note
Just so Democrats and Liberals do not feel left out, I have another group of voters that have disillusioned me as well.
In elections in the past, I have experienced primaries where candidates fight long and hard for their agenda and for their candidacy. When they do not get the nomination they do one of two things. They either throw their whole-hearted support to the winning nominee or they endorse the nominee and disappear in the woodwork. Equally; their supporters do the same. After all, as they are from the same party, their ideals are similar enough they can and do support the nominee against the opponent from the other party.
Not so with Bernie Sanders and his backers. In both 2016 and 2020, even after losing Bernie hung on and hung on in order to get concessions from the winner. I do not know if it worked but it seemed to empower his backers to hold out some kind of hope or something. In any case, they fomented negative messages against the nominee that was egregious, outrageous, nasty, and down-right liable. They questioned the who election process because their candidate did not win, thus raging against the fact that they were in the minority in their own party. They vowed to vote for a third-party candidate (funny thing; Bernie was a 3rd party candidate masquerading as a Democrat in the first place) or not voting. Worst of all, they supported the candidate from the other party (Trump) by spreading unfounded rumors about the Democratic candidate.
Conclusion
So you see, it has been a disillusioning times. Hopefully, things will reach a form of normalcy again. I hope the day will come when the White House is occupied by someone who is running the country instead of running his mouth and where decisions are made for the country’s sake instead of a personal agenda. Who knows – maybe.
I am not naïve. I know that this is not an unique time in America. This kind of crap has happened with the electorate before. This kind of crap has happened within the political parties before. Trump is unprecedented. That is the only difference. I just thought, as a country, we had become better than this. Only time will tell.
Hell, the jackass may win another term.
God help us.
