Just this morning I opened an email from the president of the Calhoun County Democrats here in Alabama. It included a link to a YouTube interview she provided the world. Like so many sensible, unselfish, decent and sane citizens, she was still deflated as to what took place two weeks ago; yet resolute concerning what had happened and what America’s future was to resemble. One thing she testified to in her rant, crystalized what this election was about. It shook what was decent in me to the point of a paradigm shift away from that decency. She relayed a story about a woman coming to the CCD headquarters on election day looking for help, thinking she has found her assigned polling place. After finding staff, she admitted she was voting Republican, while admitting she realized she was not at a polling location. Sheila, the woman providing the testimony in the video, asked her why she was voting for Donald Trump? The woman told her that she felt a kindred spirit to him because he was a convicted felon as she was!
In the days following the Democrat’s lose, pundits have spoken about all of the messaging mistakes conducted by the party. They have discussed technical errors such as changing candidates too late or not holding a primary election. It will always be hard to determine if those variables hurt the Harris/Waltz campaign. Other talk centered around demographic shifts away from liberalism. Story after story was told about the Hispanic sectors of America’s electorate voting against their interests. Only now have we been able to determine what motivated them. After interviews and polling, we now know that a significant number of Latino voters voted to keep newer sojourners out of America to stave off competition for the ‘American dream.’ Or due to the basic patriarchal norms of Latino culture, they could not bring themselves to place a woman in the highest office of leadership. Also, because of their attempt to attain ‘whiteness’ before others in their voting block they casted their voice the way they did to punch down upon black Afro Hispanic voters. Even more stories came testifying to other dark motives to shadow doom scrollers about ‘chaos’ voters, voting against democracy to bring about a race war or to tear down financial norms to promote crypto currency. More benign accounts chronicled voters choosing hopefully a cheaper carton of eggs over societal stability.
As the dust settled it became apparent that the most selfish, insane, inhumane and ignorant reasons for voting against continuation of a stable society were what may cause that stable society to become unraveled to the point of permanent insolvency, in the most consequential election in over a century. Reader, in this moment, I cannot encourage you one way or another to hold true to that value tree that has made our nation the greatest in world history! That being compassion, integrity, selflessness, discernment, truth and justice. Because 51% of America did not hold those values when they made one the most consequential decisions they have make in their lives. Last year I wrote a blog on this site warning potential candidates to test the waters when it comes to deciding to run for office or not. I advised them to not do so if an electorate seems too sick to justify putting in the work it would take. On a more basic level, I don’t know what to tell everyday citizens in how to go about their day-to-day affairs against such a societal norm of ‘corrosion of normalcy.’ Because I have yet to determine if it’s worth caring for my fellow countryman like I used to. If it’s enjoyable to watch them suffer for their just deserts. Possibly out of cynicism, I’m not remorseful! All of that is alarming! It’s a new reality I never thought would become real.
-John
