This is the most consequential election, not only in the lifetimes of anyone living, but in all of American history. It’s not about Democrat v. Republican. It’s not even about Reality Actor Buffoon v. Elder Statesman. It’s a lot more basic than that. It’s about Truth v. Lies and Democracy v. Autocracy. Democracy itself is on the ballot, as Joe Biden informed us. So is decency and science. Would that this were hyperbole, but it’s not. It’s how it is.
So, the question for us is simple: Are we ready? I believe we are. We must be. All elections are important. But we know in our bones this one is more consequential. America is at an inflection point. A time of real peril, but of extraordinary possibilities. We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, and more divided. A path of shadow and suspicion. Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this chance to heal, to be reborn, to unite. A path of hope and light. This is a life-changing election that will determine America’s future for a very long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballot.
I think we’re at more than an inflection point, we’re at an existential crossroads. The image of John Kasich standing out in the field, with the two paths either diverging or converging, depending on your view, was compelling due to its appropriateness. Literally, everything we have been and everything we stand for is on the ballot this fall. And that is a sobering and humbling proposition. Joe Biden is gambling on our inherent decency to make the right decision and Charlie Pierce sees that as one hell of a bet. Esquire:
Biden is taking a bigger gamble than he is being given credit for, a bigger gamble than many people are comfortable admitting exists. He is gambling that a country that gave an authoritarian buffoon enough votes to slime into the presidency* will give him enough votes to begin to repair all the damage, and he’s also gambling that the same country will do so out of a fundamental decency that’s been in short supply for some time.
The fact is that none of those three things [decency, science democracy] should be on a ballot. We should not have to vote ourselves decent. We should not have to subject scientific truth to a plebiscite. We should never have even the slimmest chance to vote down democracy. But here we are. And here we stay, for two more months, at least.
Pierce goes on to frame Biden’s speech in Biblical terms. He’s not just waxing poetic here, there’s a lot of literal parallel and that’s what’s scary.
Supporting them are those who have violated the covenant. The sons of Levi, the sons of Judah, and the sons of Benjamin, those exiled to the wilderness, shall fight against them [ . . . ] against all their troops, when the exiles of the Sons of Light return from the Wilderness of the Peoples to camp in the Wilderness of Jerusalem.
—The “War Scroll” — 1QM, 4Q49l-496 — Dead Sea Scrolls, First Century BCE
Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness.
—Joe Biden, August 20, 2020
George Lucas didn’t write a conflict more basic than the one that we are adjudicating at the ballot box in 73 days. And if there is any question about the apocalyptic nature of this contest, take a listen to Donald Trump, speaking in Arlington, Virginia.
“If our opponents prevail, no one will be safe and no one will be spared…including the people that fund. They think they’re gonna be best pals, they’re not gonna be best pals, they’ll be terminated like many others. I’m the only thing standing between the American dream and total anarchy, madness and chaos….if we don’t win, it’s all gone, okay? It’s all gone.,,second amendment all gone…it will be a totally different country and ultimately it will fail, it will fail.”
As usual, Trump projects like an IMAX theater. He is not the custodian of the American dream, he is the bringer of destruction that he projects upon Joe Biden. And the doom he projects is an accurate one — if HE wins, God forbid — because America will be finished on the world stage. We will never again be the lead player that we were, we’ll be a banana republic understudy, if that. You notice that Trump doesn’t talk much about China these days, after initially using it as a means to demonize Joe Biden and drag Hunter into the conversation.
Joe Biden speaks of a united America. Donald Trump speaks of an America where he, the strongman, will put an end to anything he doesn’t like. “We won’t let it go on much longer,” he says of protests in Portland. He talks about how “crazy” protesters are — and QAnon isn’t?
Trump is American Carnage incarnate. He preaches a doctrine of darkness and despair. Joe Biden admonishes us to come out of this “season of darkness” and into the light. It is terrifying that democracy took this strange path, to where her very existence is going to be decided in 73 days. In 73 days we find out who we are — and that’s assuming the voting process doesn’t get derailed by Trump’s postmaster general henchman. We need to get out the vote as if our lives depended on it, because they do. And then we must hope and pray, as Joe Biden is gambling on, that the better angels of of our nature prevail and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people does not perish from this earth. That’s what it’s come down to.
With respect to Pierce, what other bet is worth making at this time?
Every scientist studying climate change is phucking freaking out. Trump has stomped the proverbial gas by ending all regulations & putting the fossil fuel industry in charge of the environment. Everyone understands if you are sitting in a chair & lean back far enough you reach the tipping point where you CAN’T RECOVER. Gravity is real. It is impartial to race, gender, age, immigration status, or wealth. Sean Hannity would bust his arse. The warming of the planet will reach a tipping point & if we don’t vote the Democrats into power in the house, senate, & presidency, so that laws can be made into reality, we are done. We are finished as a species. Over 20 verifiable hominid species have gone extinct. We are the last. The truth is, no matter how freedom, or anything else about our history, has played out, once again, Americans can literally save the world by making the effort to VOTE. If Trump is in power until Jan 2025, the only TRUE RACE, the human race will end. That’s the truth.
Dismal but truthful, Scott.
‘You notice that Trump doesn’t talk much about China these days, after initially using it as a means to demonize Joe Biden and drag Hunter into the conversation.’
And he’s much less likely to, after Steve Bannon was arrested on a palatial yacht owned by a Chinese oligarch.