America Likes a Good Fight. This Is Not a Good Fight.
Campaign 2024 reveals its dark side.
A Presidential campaign can be described as having a center of gravity. This election turn, its participants have so far avoided the question why this one has a center that is taking us to the dark side of human experience: fear, anomie, cruelty, despair.
Sorry, it’s not all ‘Trump.’
I mean, who’s listening?
Four years ago, I recall a candidate running on a platform of “bring back decency.” His opponent was repeating “bring back America” — whatever that means. If you have really, really lost something, will just mentioning that it’s lost, reincarnate it? I think if I were to convince anyone of my superiority, I would seek a less childish whine. Perhaps I would try to identify what we have and what we might try to accomplish.
In other words, as a writer I very much admire advises vote-getters, I would build trust. Four years ago, we nearly stumbled on building trust, by seeking for something that we lost. This election turn, we hear the candidates credit Cassandra, Chicken Little, Uncle Charlie on a bad night — WE MIGHT LOSE IT FOREVER.
In other words, we are being asked to trust in the dark side of human experience. Aside from not sounding terribly uplifting, the tone of this election turn…
