We have less than 4 weeks to go till the midterm elections and we’re already tired of seeing politicians’ faces on television every minute of every day. Regardless of which side they’re on, we should all remember it’s not easy running for office and it can come at a personal price. These days, to throw your hat in the ring, you have to have a steely resolve and thick-skinned grit to withstand the withering personal attacks that are hurled at you and your family by partisans. Politics has always been rough, but it’s a shame it has to be as nasty as it is today. For me, I’ve just never wanted to subject myself or my loved ones to being in the spotlight, to the level that is required for public service, so I just write about it and advocate for the issues that I consider most important.
However, I do have a lot of respect for those brave enough to run and serve in office. My admiration, to be clear, is for those who have a genuine interest in serving the public good and making the world a better place. It is not for those more interested in seeking celebrity, dividing the citizenry over culture wars, and fleecing their pockets.
Seeking and holding political office is not for the meek. Representing America’s citizens in the thousands of local, state, and national offices are critical civic gestures to the continued functioning of civilized society and should be held in high esteem. Unfortunately, as a profession, it has been denigrated; most certainly the result of the hyper-partisan environment we are living in.
Unsurprisingly, significant rips and tears have formed in our national fabric, coinciding with the decline in public opinion. We are more divided and acrimonious towards one another than at any other time since the calamitous Civil War of the mid-1800s nearly brought our national experiment to an end. Many things are contributing to the national fraying. Technology has certainly played a role, causing us to be more fragmented, isolated, and less open and trusting of our fellow citizens as we go through our days engrossed and enmeshed in our devices of personal enthrallment. Our smartphones mainline curated, and intentionally inflammatory content to us to generate outrage and more clicks. The politics of destruction and demonization has had a detrimental effect on societal cohesiveness and decreased our natural levels of interpersonal communication and outreach to one another.
The mood is particularly ill right now, dividing close family members, alienating co-workers from each other, and manifesting itself in death threats to public officials and generally aggressive behavior like road rage. As a country, we are in a bad place. We talk past one another and don’t want to listen to divergent perspectives. We’re quick to disregard or marginalize or worse dehumanize our fellow countrymen if their messages or lifestyles don’t fit neatly into our comfortable little echo chamber or ideal vision of what a real American should look like or talk like. The acceleration of political devolution in recent years is not an accident though.
Donald Trump’s debut on the big stage of politics in 2015 and shocking win in November of 2016 threw gasoline on a fire that was already burning. He normalized bad behavior and incitement of violence. The millions of followers who loved his tough talk and fear-mongering regarding immigration and also loved his aggressive & threatening language toward his political opponents and members of the media made a deal with themselves along the way. They decided to accept the fountain of lies he was spewing out during the 2016 election and on through to the present. They didn’t see any of it as a threat to our democratic republic, or they just didn’t care. They loved his message; facts, standards, and decency be damned. This pivot point is when it started to become much more than just ordinary partisan politics and something much more menacing in nature.
What Donald Trump did starting in 2015 (and is still doing today), was deliberately trying to destroy faith in our very systems of Democratic governance that have kept the country together for over 200 years. His single biggest objective has been to undermine the public’s confidence in everyone and everything, except for himself. From our free press to the FBI, to the diplomatic core, and even the National Archives now; if these organizations and departments are not doing his bidding in his efforts to obfuscate and cover up his activities, then they are the enemy and are demonized as less than scum. If you do not support him then you are a threat and the enemy. Many others Magalyte mini-Trump candidates followed suit and have embraced his destructive playbook.
He cozied up to autocrats and dictators praising their “strength” while denigrating the elected leaders of traditionally-allied countries. He’s still playing footsie with Vladimir Putin and making excuses for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In true authoritarian form and out of office now for more than a year and a half, he still refers to reporters and other members of the press as enemies of the people because they shine a light on his activities and portray him unfavorably. His words and deeds speak for themselves, but it is still the job of the free press to shine a light on them for all of us to see. Like all public figures, he is fair game for scrutiny. If you are in public office, or like Trump, lost but wish to regain the Presidency and serve as Commander in Chief again, then you cannot complain when the public or the media ask you questions seeking to explain your actions and policy positions. You should address the questions, confirm or refute the allegations and move on. Stop whining that you are being unfairly attacked if you can’t even credibly respond to what’s being leveled against you.
He would happily see our institutions crumble in an effort to acquire more authoritarian control of the country and fealty from his supporters. Loyalty to his interests is everything; like a bonified Mafiosa, Trump values loyalty amongst his subordinates over loyalty to the country. Despite losing the popular vote again in 2020 and solidly losing the Electoral College thank God, many of his loyal supporters still believe he won just because he claims it so. Despite there being no serious evidence ever produced in a proceeding or court of law to back up those claims in any of the states that were in contention, he has carried on and engrained The Big Lie in the minds of his supporters. It’s nothing short of blind, cultish loyalty to one thoroughly corrupt and morally bankrupt person that has our democracy teetering on the edge of falling off a cliff.
Donald Trump will eventually fade from the public spotlight. However, the cancerous legacy he has left behind manifests daily in the actions and dishonest and violent rhetoric of right-wing candidates across the country who emulate him. Many of them are desperate to win his endorsement and the support of his MAGA supporters. For what I ask? Is it worth it to throw away all of your principles and standards to acquire the power that political office embodies? How long will his destructive legacy hang over our great land?
A lot of damage has already been done, and the storm is still raging, but we must begin to prepare for the clean-up even while the winds are still whipping around outside. The question is, what will the final toll be in the end? Will our democracy even be repairable? One way or another, the storm will pass and the flood waters will recede. We must move towards rebuilding a baseline of civic accountability, public service, and national unity. What other choice do we have other than to resist the forces of fascism, cynicism, and the plague of apathy? We must do better now as a country and we must begin the hard work now. The good news is a large number of Americans are growing tired of all of it and are ready to start down a fresh path. We can fix this, but it will not be easy. It will entail millions of dedicated American citizens doing their part.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll dive deeper into several critical steps that I feel should be taken to strengthen our national unity and renew an American future for all. They will include the following: (1)the establishment of a national civics curriculum, 2)comprehensive digital media education for children, 3)a compulsory national service program 4)reform of our immigration policy, and 5)reform of our election system to include ranked-choice primary elections that encourage more centrist candidates and moderate policy positions that more of us agree on.