You might have heard something about this; it’s been in all the papers. And on all the TV commercials. And on more than a few websites. It has been called, by various pundits, the most important election of our lifetimes, which would make it more important that the last election that was the most important of our lifetimes.
And it is, indeed, important. Elections matter, and this one matters more than most. It matters so much that early estimates say more than $4 billion will be spent nationally by candidates trying to get their message out to voters. (I can’t help but think we’d be better off if we used that $4 billion to feed hungry people, but if that’s how donors wish to spend their money, that’s up to them.)
This election matters so much that early predictions say voter turnout will be high, which is a healthy sign for a democracy that recently has appeared sickly.
Anyway, as we look to Election Day with a mix of hope and trepidation — and a dash of relief that it soon will be over — we are filled with various thoughts and observations.
Like mild bemusement about the Republicans’ strategy. President Donald Trump has spent weeks making campaign appearances, apparently because when you’re good at campaigning and lousy at presidenting, that’s what you do. And he has spent much time talking about a caravan of refugees getting ready to “invade” the United States, because when you’re good at instilling fear and lousy at policy, that’s what you do.
We probably would be better off if we discussed health care or tax cuts for the wealthy that will be paid for by our children and our grandchildren. But I guess you talk about what you know.
Have you ever noticed that? Republicans have gone from the party of “morning in America” to the party of fear and loathing. Listening to conservative talk radio is to subject yourself to a cacophony of fear-mongering and commercials for gun stores, home security systems and ID protection. “I can’t stress this enough — you have to protect yourself from the thugs out there,” I recently heard one radio host say before he tried to sell me some security against ID theft. Because when you are good at scaring people and lousy at instilling hope, that’s what you do.
Plenty of fear to go around
Undoubtedly, there is plenty of fear to go around on both ends of the spectrum. While Republicans tell us we should be so scared that we need to separate toddlers from their parents without a plan for reuniting them, Democrats tell us we should fear President Trump. I think the Democrats have a better argument, but I also think our nation will survive this turbulence.
Marc Thiessen thinks so, too. Thiessen is a conservative columnist for The Washington Post who sometimes gets published on The Columbian’s editorial pages, and this week he wrote a column about parallels between President Trump and President Nixon. As persuasive arguments go, it was not well thought out; Nixon is hardly the example you want to use for suggesting that Trump isn’t all that bad.
But what Thiessen failed to point out is that this nation survived Nixon’s criminal behavior because Republicans of good conscience eventually abandoned him. They realized that the United States was more important than party loyalty or ideological purity or the risk of personal embarrassment. And they realized that a president so consumed with paranoia that he sees the bogeyman in every news story and keeps an “enemies list” is likely to crash into a mountain and take the country with him.
That, perhaps, is the best metaphor. As The Columbian once wrote editorially, “Trump won the election, and rooting for him to fail is akin to hoping that a pilot crashes the plane in which you are riding.” That is the lesson that must be carried into the election.
Nobody wants to see the Trump administration fail; some of us simply recognize that he is an incompetent pilot who doesn’t have a flight plan. And that is what makes this election so important.
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