And so, now down to hours before the midterms, I come to Part II of this
message. I'm going to operate on the assumption that you have already
read Part I. If not, I encourage you to stop reading here, and not come
back until you've read it. It'll give you useful context for what I have
to say here. In any case, I'll sum up here what I've written in Part I by
saying that it gives an overview of the media environment in which politics in
the U.S. is practiced now, and how that environment contributes to the
existential dilemma democracy in our country now faces. Fighting that
environment, and the damage it has done and continues to do, is one key part of
the case I want to make here for making sure that you get out and vote and encourage as many other people as possible to do the same.
This part, however, is equally important, and perhaps is even more disturbing and dangerous. It's not about the messengers. It's about the message. In a philosophical sense, it's about the absence of a message, as well as the dangerous political goal that occupies the place where a message should be.
Up until the 1980s, elections in this country, whatever the agendas of the candidates competing in them, were predicated on a fundamental acceptance of the rules of democracy. Rules for voting in each state applied to everyone eligible to vote. All votes cast by people following those roles were counted honestly and fairly. As a consequence, there were winners and losers defined by the rules for elections as well as those of math. Everyone, even the disappointed losers, accepted and abided by the results. The winners knew that they would have to face the voters again to stay in power, while the losers knew that they would get another chance to be the winners.
We should all be proud of the fact that it worked that way, and mostly worked well, for a historically long period of time.
We cannot, however, assume that it will work that way this year. We will be damned lucky if we can get back to the point again.
Let me put it this way.
One of the things that allows the MSM, and other players in our political system, to push for the out-of-power-in-the-White-House party to succeed in midterm elections is that it carries the fairness theme of American elections to a logical point. In a democracy, even those who do not control the highest office in the land deserve to have some ability to influence the direction of governance in the nation. If fairness is your political lodestar, the power of that principle can't be denied. In ordinary times, it shouldn't be.
Again, these are not ordinary times. But the good news is that, if fairness is your lodestar, there is still a way to pursue it, and make it a reality.
On one side this year, you have what amounts to a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and independents, all of whom accept the basics of government in a democratic republic. They believe in listening to and respecting each other, working together, and governing their conduct toward one another with fairness and honesty. In short, you have people who cut across all social, political, and economic boundaries, willing to do what it has traditionally taken to form a more perfect union. You don't have to take my word for this. Look at Twitter (before Elon Musk destroys it, that is), and you'll see people from all sides of our political discussion chiming in on the same basic message. For that matter, look at MSNBC, that notoriously "liberal" cable news network, and you'll see the same thing.
As for the other side? Well, in fairness to my Republican coalition partners, I won't call it the Republican side, or even a MAGA Republican side. Since it's essentially a personality cult in any case, let's call it the Trump-DeSantis side. That should make it clear enough.
And, once again, if fairness is your lodestar, you should do everything in your lawful power to prevent it from gaining even a toehold in Washington. For all of our sakes. For your sake.
Why?
I know that your time is precious, and I don't want to do a single thing to stop you from getting yourself and everyone you know to the polls on Tuesday. So I'm going to give you what in corporate circles the executive summary. It's still going to be lengthy, because it's as comprehensive as I can make it. But my hope is to get you and everyone else out the door with everything you need to know.
The Trump-DeSantis party promotes a policy agenda that is recognized elsewhere as being bankrupt.
Even worse, it knows this, and does not care at all, because it doesn't want Congress to make policy decisions on behalf of you and me. It wants control of Congress for its own sake, to enrich its backers and shaft everyone else.
It is willing to lie about its opponents to get it. Especially if one or more of the opponents are black.
And the steps they will take?
Sowing division, discord, and chaos to the point of exhausting any possibility of reasoned debate, just as they have been doing for the past two years.
Making America dependent on a declining resource supplied by bloodthirsty tyrants.
Making it a theocracy where the only right to worship God is to do so as evangelicals do. Even though evangelicals don't even believe in their own values. And they certainly are no longer pretending they aren't religious fanatics.
Promoting policies that make their own states more dangerous than blue ones.
And policies that, far from fighting inflation, will actually make the cost of living worse. Here is one example. And another. And yet another.
And, far from giving you more freedom, will give you even less.
In fact, it will enable them to control every aspect of our lives--and yours.
And to deny you any chance of using the right to vote to change any of this once it becomes real.
They are, in fact, actively manipulating the polls to exaggerate not only their popularity, but also the enthusiasm level of their voters.
Even worse, they have taken an assassination attempt on a political leader, one instigated by their own rhetoric, and attempted to turn it into a joke, and perhaps even into a springboard for more violence.
Are you paying attention? Or are you just skimming through all of this and saying "So what? Aren't the MAGA politicians going to win the midterms anyway? Isn't that how this always works?"
Maybe not. In fact, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, not only about the midterms, but also about what might lie ahead once they are behind us.
Early Dem turnout is massive. And even the potential "spoiler" vote doesn't seem to be a problem:
And, if you need talking points to encourage others to vote, here are a few. Recent economic news is better than many had expected, with even the Fed open to slowing down interest rate increases.
And with President Biden using every tool at his disposal to fight inflation, whether that means releasing oil from our strategic reserves or adjusting tax rates.
And with economic growth picking up again.
One final point.
Conservatism in its classical form teaches the virtue of learning from the lessons of history. A short history lesson here is worth making. Historians have shown that American politics tends to swing back and forth in arcs of 30-to-40 decades. If recent trends point in a direction with regard to this, they point to an era to a 40-year era in which we took pluralism and people power off of the American agenda, and put in its place the power of Wall Street, weapons, and a warped view of Christianity that replaces God with Mammon. And all of us are reaping the disastrous results.
Maybe, just maybe, the course we've been on isn't inevitable. And, without any doubt, it's not our only choice. I'm not the only person who feels that way, that our past tells us that this election may have the potential to be a healthy prologue.
How about you?
You have a chance to make a difference on Election Day. You can help, and encourage others to help, change the deadly course we're on now. You can do it by joining a truly bipartisan coalition of voters who, even as I type this, are banding together to literally, in the words of the late Senator John McCain, put country first. Or, by either your actively voting for the Trump-DeSantis cabal, or staying at home and tuning out the civic rubble collecting everyone, you can prove that America was never exceptional in the first place, that it will become one more failed empire clogging up the dust bin of history.
The choice, as always, as I have said before and don't hesitate to say again, is yours.
For the next three days, I will be praying as hard as I can that all of us make the right one.
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