Final Election Takeaways

In case you want even more things to be bitter about during the Season of Gratitude!

Look at this generically patriotic picture!!

A More Polarized America: Not What We Want, but What We Deserve

If I could best sum up the collective disappointment on election day in a cross-partisan manner, I think it would be the mutual revelation that most people do not think precisely in the way that we do (In America, imagine that??) As per usual, social media has been positively unbearable in moral diatribes, doubts, and indignation of the other. Alas, this individualism has long been a potent part of our culture, making the America-specific Covid Crisis wholly understandable and the lingering two-party domination in our political sphere all the more curious.

Yet this variety of interlocking experiences was itself the solution to its own problem. In previous eras of sharp political finger-pointing, we easily broke down social stereotypes and political personifications by talking to the 'other' as they often were: Neighbors, Friends, Relatives, Co-workers and so on. Unfortunately, our geographic polarization (which itself is just a symptom of further cultural polarization) has further neutered consensus-building in modern political settings, a truly dumbfounding irony when considering widespread circulation of social media (or perhaps not when processing through the exclusionary nature that popularizes these platforms). As urban areas (and by that, we really mean the people who live in them) dive deeper blue and rural ones continue a trek to ruby redness, so too have the suburbs themselves continued to polarize in their politics in accordance to the social extreme they moreso lean towards-an emerging theme in US demography research suggested by I and others in the field). Thus, it is more and more the norm to be exclusively surrounded by one's own brand of politics, enough and extremely so as to see this distinction morph from policy preference to actual perceived culture and ways of life.

This staggering homogenization has normalized new titles of identity, morality, and value, leaving no room for disagreement, lest it be offensively against one group's very essence and indicative of the 'authoritative other'. Aggravatingly, this division is in opposition to the traditional freedom of thought and emphasis on the individual that our nation has demanded, yet wholly a consequence of these very trends taken to the extreme. Especially through the lens of a pandemic pronounced in selfishness vs. selflessness, how ironic that the most American instincts could themselves lead to the most un-American!

Who is the We?

True these habits are both unhealthy and unsuccessful, but they are completely indicative of our most recent political results: A narrow and disputed presidential race, a bare Republican Senate Majority, and equally-tight Democratic House one; both at even-odds to switch hands next cycle and certain to be consumed by squabbles of fairness, cheating, and legitimacy. These next few years have the potential to be miserable in inner and outer-party fighting, social and economic stagnation, personal attacks and offense, and yes, broad disorder via pandemonium in even our most reclusive and basic social environments (a.k.a. do not expect any neighborhood streets to suddenly become quiet!)

And yet, despite all this, do you know what I (and as I argue, you too) should say?

Bring it on.

Judging by the way our present social contract manifests itself, these are not the politics we want, but surely the set-up we deserve. Our present norms are less so embodied by the philosopher's corners and moreso of the wild masses, jerked to and fro by the whims of passing emotions and passion. This is behavior very much suggestive of the full fledged direct democracies our founders so aptly feared. True, these concerns were based strongly out of classist consensus, but also in relation to the truly pragmatic fears of behavior that would later be known as mob mentality and group-think. When we act on these tribal notions, it is usually our worst that is displayed in all its primal manifestations.

Still, if we are to hit this low, we may finally know where we stand and have a chance at recovery as we face the true vulnerability coming from both absolute the corresponding to to repair a sinking ship. After all, Americans have made it clear they are sick and tired of their political (and increasingly, social) norms these past several decades. But as the old Alcoholics Anonymous Adage itself goes, only when we are sick and tired of being sick and tired can true positive change and growth commence.

Make No Mistake, the caricatures of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden in background, demeanor, and policy, are themselves symptoms and not the root of our partisan problem. Many had looked to this election as an illusive cure to both division and discrimination; instead we have found that it was never purely politics itself that was the super-spreader. Instead (without minimizing the severity of the current Covid Crisis), our True Pandemic is the Social Division of the nation itself. In a country where we are all proud to be Americans, but for vastly different reasons and within stunningly varied definitions, there must be some cohesion of consensus if we are to endure.

After we have gotten so low, it is my truly optimistic belief that our humanity itself can be reconstructed with more solid foundations in the pursuit of a mutually better tomorrow. It is certainly a lengthy process, but I look forward to being part of it nonetheless. Try to keep that in mind over the course of these next couple years and keep the faith however you may hold it.

Remember these words! We will all be needing them going forward.