With midterm elections approaching, I’ve looked for reasons to remain optimistic, but I’ve come up short. One side wants to shovel unlimited free stuff at us that apparently will never have to be paid for. The other side peddles the gas-lit delusional lie that the election was stolen in plain sight from the true patriotic voters, a double falsehood so pernicious and widespread that it probably qualifies as a malignant pandemic in its own right.
With our politics so polarized, each campaign cycle seems a deeper descent into the demonization of the other side, a slickly packaged tarring that leads to hyperbole, dishing red meat to the base that send it into a frenzy.
As H.L. Mencken summarized, “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
The Democrats would have you believe minority voter suppression is occurring on such a level as to herald a return to Jim Crow.
This certainly gets their liberal base riled up and ready for action, i.e., to vote.
But they don’t tell you it is easier to vote in Georgia than in the state of New York, or that the Black turnout as a percentage of the Black population is higher in the South than the North.
Likewise, Donald Trump’s peddling of a 2,000 mile-plus wall through canyons and flood plains, a metaphor for tough immigration policies, got the Bubba MAGAs ready to ride through a brick wall for his steel one. (Fortunately, since Mexico didn’t pay for it, the wall didn’t all get built.)
Telling voters what they want to hear is a first cousin to lying to them. No leaders are needed, just soap opera factotums who can read and campaign on what polls as popular, while acting like they believed these things from birth.
How often do you hear that a liberal politician changes positions on issues to avoid being “primaried” from the political left, or a conservative politician doing the same to protect himself from the right? Did we elect them just to get re-elected rather than lead?
Character and judgment should be on the ballot because unforeseen events in these times, like COVID and 9/11, are the rule rather than the exception. But frequently the fake earnestness of the candidates camouflages their overriding need to get elected, no matter what.
Character in politics means acting in accordance with one’s beliefs despite the consequences. Good luck judging which politician will adhere to that.
To allow voters to make judgments on which candidate most shares their values, campaigns should provide useful information on policy positions, even though, unlike foundational beliefs, political positions often shift with wind-driven polls. Politicians as performance artists get away with this in part because the American voter has a poor long-term memory.
Unfortunately, how news is absorbed more often ends up reinforcing extremes. That’s confirmation bias, not education.
When debating political issues, depending on the political views of the other, I am often accused of getting my information only from Fox or MSNBC. It is as if folks can no longer judge what is reported but are only passive receptacles for the content being dished out by whomever.
Context doesn’t matter, only the viewpoint of the reporter or network which is sponged-up by inert viewers.
A good theatrical performance can demonstrate and teach worthy virtues, such as John Wayne’s character defying evil outlaws and the devotion of Rose to Jack in “Titanic.”
To appreciate these dramas fully, disbelief must be suspended. Buying in to an animated drama requires an even bigger leap of faith, as the stars aping fictional characters are not even real actors. Buying into our current politics requires a psychic adjustment somewhere in the middle.
In such parlous circumstances, it is oddly comforting to be retired, old, on the back slope of the mountain, living at the end of the road in the woods in the middle of nowhere, far from the current Marvel Comics of our insipid politics.
Taking a cue from our politicians, I am trying to act like I no longer care, yet, hard as I struggle, my disbelief won’t suspend. If only there were hope in misery.
Dr. Robert McFarlane is a nationally renowned cardiologist who lives in East Texas.
First Published: February 12, 2022, 8:00 a.m.
