Politics Ad Nauseam
And politics…
This presidential election is causing such acrimony among friends, acquaintances and family, that deep and personal divides have occurred! This may cause fractures that may never be reconciled.Â
Regardless of your political beliefs, are destroying relationships worth the consequences? I have never witnessed such vitriol before!
In my opinion, the problem rests with the fact that election campaigns last far too long! When the respective parties hold their conventions in the summer, the election doesn’t occur for another 3-4 months!Â
And that doesn’t include the four previous years of candidates jockeying to be the “party’s nominee.” That’s absurd.
There is an alternative that recently happened that could put a damper on those who think this is a fantasy. A radical change in leadership in England lasted a total of three weeks; beginning to end. The electorate’s animosity was brief and dispersed immediately after the process concluded.
There is a lesson that we should take a hard look at.
“Journalists” (and I use that term loosely) would have a fit if we were to change our election to such a quick process. Their entire careers are based on continuous and unremitting “election coverage” with volatile sentiments.
But today’s journalists don’t care about reporting the news as it happens. They are invested in making the news; the more controversial the better.
The fault, however, doesn’t entirely rest with them. Television ratings are what drive them. That fault rests on us! We thrive on disagreement and vitriol. Good news of any kind takes a back seat to our anger.
Ask yourself if you don’t have anger toward either Trump or Harris? The Greek philosopher, Plato wrote “The chasm between what OUGHT to be and what IS, is so wide and deep, they will never stand as one.”
What we OUGHT to be witnessing is a fair, professional dialogue between two or more candidates with different viewpoints addressing the issues. What IS occurring is precisely the opposite.
Wouldn’t it be better if we had a process where the parties’ conventions occurred at the same time? There would then be one televised debate and four weeks later the election? Well, one can dream!
