It’s crazy time in America. Politics has become such a confusing mess, so with less than a year till the midterms, here’s my attempt to sort things out:
Power – It is the principal aim of politics. The Rs seem to understand this better than the Ds. Without power, you can’t get much accomplished. Best if your candidate wins the White House with sizable majorities in both “houses” of Congress so your party can pass legislation that might benefit constituents. With Rs, that means the rich. With Ds, it means everybody else. Since it would be easy to outvote rich people (if they didn’t have so much money to throw around), the Rs are forced to appeal to a wider coalition, a motley crew and strange brew, ranging from the KKK to Evangelical Christians for whom the apocalypse can’t come soon enough. So Rs pursue power with ferocious desperation, using any means necessary, such as lying with reckless abandon and finding creative ways to keep the poor and people of color from voting. Ds, on the other hand, seem to approach power as if it were an electrified third rail.
Governing – With political power three things are possible: Use it to do good. Use it to do harm. Or use it to do nothing at all. Rs prefer to do nothing at all, and they use their power to make sure Ds can’t do anything either. But now they are led by a wild-eyed activist who is hell-bent on doing as much harm as possible, using his political power to pay the world back for not loving him. And he will wreak unholy hell on them if they don’t meekly comply. Ds, meanwhile, desperately want to do good, but they are wary of what it takes to gain power. That makes them look “weak” in the eyes of hardcore American voters, who, first and foremost, want “strength” in their leaders. Intelligence, sanity, a sense of humor, common sense — even making sense? Way, way down the list.
Abuse of power – The nation’s founders, the Constitution, and the Ds have been concerned about this from the very beginning. Rs couldn’t care less. Unburdened by conscience and remorse, they are far more successful at grabbing power — the more absolute the better. And when you have the Supreme Court in your pocket, that’s easier to do. Meanwhile, Ds try to use power, when they can get it, to be part of the solution, which many American voters find extremely suspicious. And when the Ds do something to improve people’s lives, e.g. affordable health care, voters become enraged and punish them at the polls. American voters are a tough group to please.
Corporate media – Neutrality is their byword. Ever afraid of getting “out in front of” public opinion, they pretend that the wild excesses of conservative extremists are perfectly normal. They begin every newscast with the words, “President Trump …” as if bowing before a shrine. They will maintain this neutrality until the last vestiges of democracy are flushed down the gold-plated toilet in the new East Wing of the White House.
D – Stands for Democratic Party, aka the Decentralized, Dawdling, occasionally Dynamic Party. Calling it the “Democrat Party,” as Trump and his disciples like to do, makes them sound ignorant, but they’re probably just skittish about using the word “Democratic” because the word reminds people of what we’re all losing.
R – Stands for Ruthless, Reactionary, Rabid Republicans, a national cult that has somehow survived as a major political party, and for some reason has become the default setting for half of American voters — perhaps because every time they gain power, the country goes into default.
Voting – A widely misunderstood and not very widespread practice in America, voting is the primary legal means of advancing your interests. If your interests include only yourself and a small circle of family and friends, or only people who look like you, or only people you define as “real Americans,” then you are likely an R voter. If your interests coincide with the interests of most other Americans, then you are likely a D voter, and if enough Americans voted that way, we would actualize the national motto: “Out of many votes, One country to be proud of.”
What voting is not – It is not a popularity contest, not a way to proclaim the purity of your principles, not an exercise to make you feel good about being on the “winning team,” not an excuse to pat yourself on the back for being a good citizen, not a means of registering your protest about a system you find less than perfect or to punish a party because you’re miffed about some political sin you can’t forgive.
The real purpose of voting is to bestow political power on the party that is most likely — however imperfectly — to use that power to improve life for all Americans.
You are not voting for the lesser of two evils. One party is evil. The other is a collection of imperfect but well-intentioned human beings, who, with enough vote-infused political power could bring welcome progress to this country.
I hope this clarifies things enough so next November we can avoid a repeat of the D-bacle of 2024.