Nausea describes how I feel about it all. I'm certainly going to vote for the better of the two options. As one campaign poster puts it bluntly: "Kamala Harris, obviously." But, I hear what you're saying, especially about the duopoly. I'm reading a couple books right now that do not make me feel nauseous: Factfulness by Hans Rosling, and The Upswing by Robert Putnam. The former warns against (among many things) our natural human tendency to divide everything into "Us" vs "Them" or to not dichotomize everything (black/white, good/evil, rich/poor, etc.) when reality exists in the gap between extremes or in degrees of difference between poles. It does seem to me that MAGA seems to push to an extreme Right or to their base deliberately/strategically. Harris and the Dems seem to be appealing to more Center Left deliberately/strategically. More thoughts later...
The Upswing focuses on the theory that division between political and social ideologies was at a high point back in the late 19th century, slowly decreased throughout the 20th century until about 1970, then continued to increase again until our current point today. The result is this inverted U curve. Putnam also says the US broadly went from "me" to "we" and back to "me" in terms of social perspectives. This is a continuation of his theme from Bowling Alone, and again, he looks at trends in terms of social clubs, church membership, civic engagement, unions, etc. He argues that we're sort of in a second Gilded Age, and that there are lessons from the first one that may help us get out of our present day silos and homogenous groups.
I have to believe that half of the voters in the US are NOT ultra MAGA crazy-pants QAnon lunatics. Similarly, half of the voters in the US are NOT Antifa, ultra-left, Hamas-supporting campus protesters. There's a gap in the middle where most of us reside to varying degrees Center Left, Center, Center Right. That's where stuff gets done--progress actually happens, and things improve for everyone. But, there are a lot of circuit breakers that are stopping the flow of a productive democracy. Also, there's this odd chicken/egg feedback loop between extreme political voices and their constituencies or bases. Extreme behavior fuels the base, which in turn fuels further extreme behavior--the base gets more empowered to behave in kind, et cetera, ad nauseam. However, the loudest, most obnoxious voices are not the voices of MOST of the people.
I'm not arguing for some sort of equivocation or blunting of people's political beliefs, but I do believe that a lot of productive action grinds to a halt because of the push to the polar extremes. The solution according to Rosling, is to not buy in to the either/or dichotomized thinking. The solution according to Putnam is joining a club with people that are not identical to you. In terms of voting, further social/civic engagement is a sign of a healthy democracy. We need more "we" and less "me." Voting is part of that.
Hey, Jon!
Nausea describes how I feel about it all. I'm certainly going to vote for the better of the two options. As one campaign poster puts it bluntly: "Kamala Harris, obviously." But, I hear what you're saying, especially about the duopoly. I'm reading a couple books right now that do not make me feel nauseous: Factfulness by Hans Rosling, and The Upswing by Robert Putnam. The former warns against (among many things) our natural human tendency to divide everything into "Us" vs "Them" or to not dichotomize everything (black/white, good/evil, rich/poor, etc.) when reality exists in the gap between extremes or in degrees of difference between poles. It does seem to me that MAGA seems to push to an extreme Right or to their base deliberately/strategically. Harris and the Dems seem to be appealing to more Center Left deliberately/strategically. More thoughts later...
The Upswing focuses on the theory that division between political and social ideologies was at a high point back in the late 19th century, slowly decreased throughout the 20th century until about 1970, then continued to increase again until our current point today. The result is this inverted U curve. Putnam also says the US broadly went from "me" to "we" and back to "me" in terms of social perspectives. This is a continuation of his theme from Bowling Alone, and again, he looks at trends in terms of social clubs, church membership, civic engagement, unions, etc. He argues that we're sort of in a second Gilded Age, and that there are lessons from the first one that may help us get out of our present day silos and homogenous groups.
I have to believe that half of the voters in the US are NOT ultra MAGA crazy-pants QAnon lunatics. Similarly, half of the voters in the US are NOT Antifa, ultra-left, Hamas-supporting campus protesters. There's a gap in the middle where most of us reside to varying degrees Center Left, Center, Center Right. That's where stuff gets done--progress actually happens, and things improve for everyone. But, there are a lot of circuit breakers that are stopping the flow of a productive democracy. Also, there's this odd chicken/egg feedback loop between extreme political voices and their constituencies or bases. Extreme behavior fuels the base, which in turn fuels further extreme behavior--the base gets more empowered to behave in kind, et cetera, ad nauseam. However, the loudest, most obnoxious voices are not the voices of MOST of the people.
I'm not arguing for some sort of equivocation or blunting of people's political beliefs, but I do believe that a lot of productive action grinds to a halt because of the push to the polar extremes. The solution according to Rosling, is to not buy in to the either/or dichotomized thinking. The solution according to Putnam is joining a club with people that are not identical to you. In terms of voting, further social/civic engagement is a sign of a healthy democracy. We need more "we" and less "me." Voting is part of that.