A Reflection on Election Day

How did we get here and how do we get out? (Spoiler: There are no real answers.)

waving american flag

The Critical Reader was all set to publish a lengthy article about how we find ourselves in “the most important election of our lifetime” that, according to Oprah Winfrey, will be the last election in the United States if Donald Trump wins. An election in which a candidate who couldn’t get over 1% of the vote when she ran in the primaries in 2019 has been elevated to almost super-human status. An election in which the Republican candidate has predicted socialism and marxism for our country if Kamala Harris wins. And an election in which we brace ourselves for the possibility of nonstop posts on social media at all hours of the day and night.

Let’s be honest, it’s an election in which neither candidate is really that spectacular.

And yet, here we are, on the edge of glory or the brink of doom, depending on who you talk to. Meanwhile, no one is really offering any solid details or a clear plan. “We’re going to build lots of houses and make sure anyone can have an abortion!” shouts the one side, while the other screams, “We’re going to lower gas prices and get rid of every last illegal immigrant!” We don’t know how any of that is going to get done. That’s why they call them campaign promises. A lot of them disappear by the time a President gets into office. (Although Trump did lower gas prices the last time he was in office, and he did make some strides on illegal immigration.)

Speaking of the President, where is Joe Biden? How did we go from being told that Joe was just fine and that we never take into consideration that he has a lifelong stutter to having him yanked off the stage with a big hook and the promise of an ice cream cone?

Anyway, back to the point of this article. The Critical Reader was going to develop a story on how a loving-or-loathing of politicians has ratcheted up the intensity of this race, which in any other time in history might be seen as a yawn. Then another publication wrote the article for us.

The Libertarian magazine Reason published an article on Monday titled “Don’t Blame Me for Not Voting for Your Unbelievably Rotten Candidate.” Author Nick Gillespie laments that the two leading candidates for President of the United States are, at best, mediocre options.

“Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamal Harris are arguing about which one of them will add $4 trillion in new debt vs. which one will add $8 trillion,” Gillespie writes. He finds it humorous that both uninspiring candidates “claim this could be the last election EVER.” Gillespie admits he wrote in the name of a third-party candidate because he and others “are holding out for something better.

“There's a reason why presidential contests have been as tight as they have been for a while, and why control of Congress has flipped back and forth so much over the last couple of decades,” Gillespie wrote. “You're not going to win elections easily until you stand for something consistent, productive and respectful of the people you seek to govern.”

So that’s where we are, which honestly is not as frightening as some of the scenarios that have been offered by politicians, pundits and celebrities. We have 99 problems in this country, and finding an awesome candidate for President of the Unites States is definitely one of them.

May the more-qualified and least-offensive candidate win.