The Witness Chronicles, July 17, 2024

Political burnout

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

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Are Democrats in a Political Funk? I Know I Am

The Party is depressed right now and needs to throw that off

I’m not watching the Republican National Convention this week. Honestly, it gives me ogida (it’s Italian American slang for heartburn). But it’s mental ogida. I’m just sick of the whole thing, the whole state of politics here in the US. It stinks.

The Republicans under Trump seem to have lost their collective minds and come to believe our country is a scary hellhole. To support those fears they make up statistics on everything from the economy to crime (which is down everywhere). Then they amplify those fake numbers by believing there is any one of a million vast conspiracies behind their claims.

The Democrats, who managed to look unified during the Biden years, have fallen to pieces as Biden’s age issue threatens to destroy his chances to win. The reality many will not accept is that he is old and has declined since the last election, though everyone can see it.

It is not mental, it is physical. But the details don’t matter, what matters is the impression and voters have already made their minds up about that perceived issue. It bothers us, a lot.

The real problem here is that Democrats can’t seem to deal with it. Leaders want him to step down but they waffle about saying it. And he needs to hear it. I’m not seeing any sign that he understands how bad the numbers are, probably because he is not getting the bad news.

This cloud of uncertainty would disappear if Biden would keep a promise he made when running last time. He promised he would not run for a second term. That’s probably what bothers me the most. He lied, out of arrogance or best intentions. It doesn’t matter, the damage is done.

The attempted shooting of Trump threw a huge monkey wrench into the mix. It appears the young man who did it was probably mentally ill and was a self-proclaimed conservative who may have done it to get attention.

But now the right says God saved Trump. Where was God for the firefighter killed while protecting his family? Nobody is even talking about that loss. Trump has not said a word about it and they were his supporters, so enthusiastic that they earned seats right behind him.

Now some convention attendees are wearing white bandages on their ears.

No wonder I’m in a funk. It looks like the country has gone nuts. Which is awful except nobody I know is doing this crazy stuff. I’m not seeing it around here. There’s a gap between reality and this political mayhem and it feels like most of us have given up on caring.

I’m starting to get that, which really bothers me. We’re in real trouble and we are not dealing with it, at all. It’s just the news and most of us are not paying attention beyond hearing a headline.

Apathy.

It’s so much easier to watch reality TV or dwell on memes or gambling on sports, and everything else. That’s an epidemic which seems to trouble no one.

It’s summer, so we are not supposed to be thinking about politics and climate change, and the economy, and immigrants and Ukraine and Israel and Gaza and Hamas and all the other gloom and doom.

But what I’m feeling is that we do care but we don’t feel like we have much say in the matter. No matter which side you are on. The problem is that there are real things going on that could get bad real fast. I guess I’d argue they already have.

After all, the Supreme Court ruled that a sitting President can get away with murder if it is an official act, but they did not bother to tell us what an official act is.

I want us all to think about that and be outraged. Democrat or Republican, our President is no longer subject to the same law that the rest of us have to obey.

We are already seeing effects. Donald Trump stole hundreds of classified documents, which by law belong to us, the nation, and now a judge he appointed threw that case out despite overwhelming evidence of guilt.

He may have committed treason by showing those docs to others. And nobody seems to care.

Joe Biden was a strong President but now he is a weakened candidate. Donald Trump is now a martyr protected by God. And these are the choices for leader of the free world?

Shame on all of us for letting this happen, which is what we are doing.

There used to be a thing called the will of the people. Politicians paid attention to it and made choices based on it. No longer. They seem to have realized that what they really need to pay attention to are the people that write the big checks. I get that. Politics is insanely expensive.

But what about that will? Does it still exist? I wonder.

~ I write The Grasshopper, an occasional letter on the creative life and it’s sister, mostly daily publication The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate. They share a free and paid subscription. I don’t paywall any content in these, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen.

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