So, we have yet another election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Most Americans hate this fact. They hate that they have to choose between a man unable to use a staircase or talk, and a man who doesn’t seem to understand what the words “overthrowing the government is bad” means. How’d we get here? I’ll clue you in, dear reader. We did this to ourselves.
For many years throughout American History, Congress got things done. Not a huge amount of things, but definitely some. Nowadays it makes national news if any bill is remotely bipartisan. Why is that? It’s because we as Americans have convinced ourselves that the other side is demonic.
We are fully willing to vote in a sentient Cheeto if it means “screwing over the libs.” We are fully willing to vote in a senile old man because the nobody bothered voting for anybody except Biden or Bernie. Our only third party is a man who believes vaccines cause autism and that 5G gives you brain cancer. So ultimately, my point is that all of this is our own fault.
It is the Republicans’ faults for nominating the least qualified candidate for a presidency in American History.
It is the Democrats’ faults for seriously considering Bernie Sanders a valid choice, and for choosing an objectively weak leader.
It is up to us as Americans to nominate competent candidates for our presidency. It is up to us, America, to vote for moderates in the primaries.
We used to do that. We used to vote for men who earned our trust and had a proven track record. Obama was an Ivy-League graduate and a scholar of constitutional law, all by his 30s. George W. Bush had relatively little experience, but at least Dick Cheney did a reasonable job running the country while he was busy singing “Green, Green Grass of Home.” Clinton (problematic as he was) and Bush Sr. were both shrewd foreign policy-makers and fiscally responsible presidents, and for all the critiques one can make of Reagan, he indisputably had an incredible ability to unite America. Do you not miss those days?
But while this article might have quite a doom-and-gloom outlook on this coming election (and it is inevitably going to be a dumpster fire), I think we do have hope. Not in 2024, that ship sailed a long time ago. But certainly in 2026 and 2028. The beautiful thing about this country is that we have the power. Lobbies wield massive influence, sure. But ultimately it is our votes that count.
So while it is too late to reverse course in 2024, we as a nation have an incredible opportunity: the chance to learn from a mistake. We will, as a nation, watch as the next four years become some of the worst in our history, of that I am sure. But after that, after we have waded through the mess we have caused ourselves, we sit at a new crossroads: the chance to be moderate again.
The days of reasonable politicians don’t have to be lost forever, America. We have that choice. So remember, when you are sobbing as you reluctantly press whichever button on the voting machine, or wonder in 2028 how we screwed up so bad, it’s because we didn’t vote moderate in the primaries. But also remember, we have more chances, chances that we as a nation must take.
