I had a difficult time coming up with a topic for this blog post. I blame a few things: the election, covid, the overall hustle of midterm. It is no doubt a combination of these three that have attacked the invention area of my brain. But, just as I began losing hope, something dislodged and a thought materialized. I'll pose it here as a statement: Make Politics Boring Again! I long for the day when I don't have to worry about the President ending the world over a tweet.
Though I'm careful not to speak for everyone, or overgeneralize, many of us would agree that much of our time spent on social media is plagued with news about Trump; all of it is bad, absolutely all of it. Though I could spend time discussing how this election is perhaps the most important to our country's history, I'd like to instead focus on the public. It seems the public has had enough. I'll qualify and say that those voting for Trump obviously don't fit this discussion. To them, Trump is winning bigly. If they thought rationally, they'd see Trump for the fraud that he is. That said, the energy surrounding Biden seems different than the energy surrounding Clinton in 2016. The public seems a bit more engaged this time around.
They're ready to move on. But, as I alluded to above, it isn't folks like me (far left in his leanings) or your MAGA hat-wearing folks, all of whom consume regularly political news, that I'm referring to. In relation to a discussion we had in class, I'm talking about the moderates. What of the moderates who voted for Trump in 2016 because Clinton didn't jive with them? What of those who sat out in 2016? Polls are indicating that the election might break records in terms of voter turnout. For those who didn't vote in 2016, are they sick enough of Trump now? Newsweek says "yes".
Trump's presidency should (hopefully "will") go down in history as "The Disinformation Presidency." As we've seen, many fall for Trump's conspiracy theories. Many of those who consider themselves moderates fell for them. However, is there a limit to how much disinformation the public is willing to accept? And which disinformation campaign was it that set many against Trump? If I were a betting man, I'd bet on his attack on science in the face of a global pandemic. Trump was able to hide behind his lies and fake news, using Fox News in particular as a propaganda machine, but when countries like New Zealand have successfully eliminated Covid with science, Trump's attack on science has left a bad taste in most sane people's mouths.
Unfortunately, his most loyal followers still believe the conspiracy theories but the seams are starting to really show. Between the Presidental debate, the town hall meetings, etc., Trump seems unhinged, weak, and scared. So much is clear: we must vote! We must persuade our friends and family who don't typically vote to go to the polls. The only way to rid us of the tweeting tangerine is Biden winning by a landslide. I realized one thing while watching Biden's town hall meeting: it was incredibly uneventful. I dare say, it was boring!
Vote!
Make politics boring again!
Keith,
ReplyDeleteI think you vocalize a lot of the feelings many people are having right now. These days, it feels like our lives are consumed by politics and impending threats of doom. It is easy and sounds so appealing to just turn everything off and never pay attention again, but at the same time, it is nearly impossible to feel okay doing so when it feels like every four years basic human rights are up for debate.
Your post gave me a terrifying thought: how will textbooks write about the Trump Presidency? Are we far enough in dismantling white hegemony that we will discuss its problems? Or will we continue to glorify our nation's mistakes? I shudder to think of the supplemental education I may have to provide my children some day. I stand with you: Make Politics Boring Again!
ReplyDeleteI voted today! And so did my husband, who was a first-time voter.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of Trump loyalists reminded me of the following Sharon Crowley quote (because everything reminds me of Sharon Crowley; she's brilliant):
"Defenders of fundamentalisms do not evaluate the ideals that drive them; were they to do so, they would risk discovering incoherence and other flaws” (14).
I recently trained to phone bank for Biden, and one of the recommendations in the script is that if you connect with a Trump voter, just thank them for their time and move on to the next call. I feel like we're able to expend our energy trying to galvanize reluctant voters because we finally realized that it's pointless to argue with fundamentalists and Trump loyalists. If they were open to being persuaded, it would have happened by now. We can't ignore them forever, but it's a relief that we've all given ourselves permission to stop beating our heads against the brick wall of Trumpism for these last few weeks of the election.
Keith,
ReplyDeleteThese are really interesting thoughts. This is a very scary time for everyone with the possibility of four more years of this presidency. I can't even imagine what four years from now will look like with Trump as president. There is so much on the line if Trump wins the election, causing all of us to be panicked that this could, in fact, happen again.
I agree that the moderates are causing much of this anxiety. I've already seen people on social media commenting that they have to pick "the lesser of two evils" by voting for Biden or Trump just like they did for Clinton (remember the emails?). There doesn't seem to be a lot of passion for Biden, even though there is support. It seems like this has been a "Anyone but Trump" kind of election, which honestly is what we need. I wonder when it'll be before people get passionate about candidates again?