Deep Thought: Can Democracy Survive Us?
Created | Updated 4 Days Ago
Deep Thought: Can Democracy Survive Us?
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This week (21-27 October) I have come to the conclusion that our electoral system is the subject of a longitudinal study by alien anthropologists. They're obviously messing about with us to see what we do in extreme circumstances. How else can we explain the series of events surrounding this year's presidential campaign?
Of course, just as people now blame everything that goes wrong on either global warning or, alternatively, 'wokeness', the late-season weirdness is usually put down to the far-famed 'October Surprise'. An 'October Surprise', in case you don't know, it an event or revelation surrounding a presidential candidate that affects the voting in a big way. Many of these 'October Surprises' have been artificially engineered by unscrupulous campaign managers over the years.
October Surprises used to be more effective before early voting and widespread mail-in balloting became common. Now, it's best not to leave things too late. Still, the electorate has become wary of the strange behaviour of politicians as the deadline approaches. Reality is fraying at the edges already. We feel that we're on thin enough ice as it is, and do not wish to see any more photo ops of candidates carrying saws.
Take the french-fry business. Please. That stunt entertained exactly two groups of people: Donald J Trump and his team, and late-night-show hosts needing material for their monologues. I mean, if you can't wax jocular about a billionaire politician trying ineffectually to prove he could, too, work in a chippy, you need to go back to comedian school.
Every day this week, somebody or other has threatened to reveal something unsavoury about the candidate they're opposed to. So far, nothing has emerged that we didn't already know, or at least suspect. Various celebrities endorse candidates. Why is that important? What do these people know about foreign policy, or economic issues, or constitutional questions, more than other voters? Why do you care who a singer or actor votes for? Still, the fact that over a million people tried to get tickets to Kamala Harris's Houston rally, whether or not they were coming to see Beyoncé, is indicative of something. The venue only held a little over 20,000.
And then there were the suspicious 180,000 new voter registrations in the Amish county. Suspicious because there are only 100,000 people living there. . . Election officials were not fooled by that trick.
Media people keep telling us that, one, it's a 'close race' (how?) and, two, they're committed to being 'fair and balanced' and bringing 'both sides' of the issues to the public. What if an issue doesn't have two sides? What if it has more than two? Do we trust journalists to know what they're talking about any more? Or is the problem that we have too many amateurs pretending to be journalists? Journalism is a profession, you know: there are skills involved that need to be learned and practised.
Are people willing to put up with anything these days? Ask the Washington Post, or what's left of it. They've had 60,000 cancellations in the first day after news broke that their owner had interfered in editorial decisions-making. To those who think it is normal for a newspaper to be the mouthpiece of a single owner, subject to their opinions or whims, or those on the other hand who believe that 'all mainstream media should be impartial and non-partisan' (how?), I recommend some deep research into the history of newspapers in western civilisation – with particular attention to the differences among countries.
Voters are still claiming to be 'undecided'. Are they doing it for the attention? The aforementioned media go around asking candidates if they will be willing to 'accept the results' of the election – as if not accepting them were a valid option.
As a poster on Twitter just wrote, 'Make it make sense.'
And make it all be over. Which it will be, hopefully, sometime in the week when you are reading this. Hopefully, also, we will see light at the end of a very long tunnel – and democracy will have survived this, one of the most nerve-wracking episodes in its short history.
PS: In case you like to keep up with us on h2g2, I and the h2g2 Post are both available on separate accounts on Bluesky these days. Our handles on the butterfly site are @dmitrigheorgheni.bsky.social and @h2g2postoffice.bsky.social. See you there if you participate! To be clear: h2g2_Guide account on Twitter (X) is (probably) non-partisan and impartial. At least, Sasha and I will identify ourselves if we have an opinion about something, usually involving birds or maths or US geography or whatever. The other accounts pretty much represent the editorial voice of yours truly, so caveat lector.
