Hang on to your pillows—Politics do make for strange bedfellows
It does not matter who wins the presidential elections, there is no exit from the roller coaster anytime soon. A lot of campaigning time was spent planning every move short of homicide that would ensure Trump the nation’s germ would not get a second term.
Many voters going into the election held the belief that if Biden wins the presidency, the constant disruption, chaos, and social unrest will recede because Trump will no longer be president. Some of them actually hinged their vote on that. Those exasperated voters and every reporter who spins that reasoning are as wrong about that as they were in their belief that the 2016 election was all about Trump. It never was.
Trump was never the cause of the conservative populist coalition that put him in office. He was the result of it. After decades of voters’ dissatisfaction with political parties, institutions, government, and culture, they voted for themselves and their communities over both party’s establishments.
It was not about voting for Trump. A lot of very smart people keep missing that critical nuance.
If Trump’s opponents, or those who cover him, would spend time listening to voters and not making fun of them, categorizing them as a cult, racists, stupid, or whatever word of the day they are using to describe them, they would understand that.
I do not mean going in for a day at a function and calling that understanding of a community. But walking in their shoes and their community’s streets to see how government has either failed them or passed their communities by.
It would not hurt to stay in town for a couple of days, attend church with people, or go to work with them.
Regarding Presidential hopeful Joe Biden, despite his wistful assertion that he is going to bring this country together, anyone with a smidgen of understanding of the Democratic Party knows he will be hard-pressed to bring his own party together, let alone an entire country.
The hard and extremely vocal Left will demand climate change legislation, defunding or deep restructuring of our nation’s police forces, free college tuition, a $15 minimum wage, “Medicare for all,” and a restructuring of our education system to include radical lessons like the 1619 Project as part of the curriculum.
The 1619 Project is an ongoing project developed by The New York Times Magazine in 2019 that “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of the United States.
They will take their demands to social media, the streets, and to Washington until they get what they want. This is not a premonition, it is sheer reality. Biden is not the far-Left’s candidate, but he is viewed as the means to an end of Trump. Once elected, there is a valid expectation of a far-left reward for voting for Biden.
The moderate Democrats, independents, and suburban Republicans who may put Biden into office would not go willingly along with sweeping government changes to satisfy activists, nor the higher taxes needed to support them, nor would they take to the streets. Instead they will silently move away from the coalition they decided to dip their toe in. The result will be an instantaneous shift back toward Republican candidates for the 2022 midterm elections, and the wildly swinging wave elections that America has been experiencing since 2006 will return.
In short, there is no exit from the roller coaster anytime soon.
Voters keep sending Washington a message with their votes every two years, and Washington keeps misreading the results. Journalism has contributed to this, a government that operates out of a bubble has contributed to this, Hollywood and national sports leagues have contributed to this, as well, national institutions have contributed to this.
The institutions’ lack of both racial and cultural diversity in the boardrooms are root causes. They need more people involved in the decision-making processes of places that have an effect on our lives who come from a state school or community college. People who sit in a pew every Sunday, or attend a mosque or synagogue. People who grew up in the projects.
Instead, they are mostly filled with the best of the best Ivy League graduates who never had those experiences — or if they did, forgot their significance along the way.
People feel left out. People feel as though all of these entities are picking winners and losers. American elections reflect that chaos, and the result is people feel whiplashed.
Team Biden has tried to portray him as the salve that will heal America. The hard truth is, no matter who wins, America will still be on a bender, no matter who takes the oath of office on Inauguration Day.
Trump may have lost at whatever cost, notwithstanding my sincere hope is that the Democrats recognize the continuing Black struggle and bring about a much-needed change within an easily attainable range.
