MILWAUKEE — Let’s be clear: Anyone who claims to know how the presidential election will play out is merely guessing. Unless they’ve devoured too many conspiracy-fueled political novels or jumped too far down Reddit rabbit holes, the upheaval experienced by American voters in this race is unprecedented.
In just the past six weeks, we’ve gone from Donald Trump’s conviction in New York, to Joe Biden’s disastrous debate defeat, to serious doubts about whether he will be able to serve a full four years in office, and now to an assassination attempt on Trump.
Any one of these developments would be classified as unprecedented. Combined, they create a situation that could become very toxic if we are not careful.
One of the questions I’ve had about this election for months is: How will the country get through the day after the election? Will the losing side accept defeat under the norms that have pretty much governed the country since at least the 1880 election? More importantly, will the losing side accept not just the idea that they lost but the fact that the winning side will rightfully govern?
Well, we are being tested early on. So far, a significant number of elected leaders from both parties appear to be trying to lead the country in good faith. Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Louisiana’s Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson have been exemplars of good bipartisan leadership. And both the former and current presidents have struck the right tone and the tone of unity that we all want and expect from our commander in chief.
But let’s not pretend that theirs is the only voice in the conversation right now.
And thanks to the reservoir of algorithmic misinformation that the big tech platforms have created to profit from our information ecosystem, there are many comments that can easily be classified as divisive and designed to incite more violence rather than lessen it. Sadly, a small number of elected politicians are contributing to and amplifying this conversation, and it can easily be misconstrued by mentally unstable individuals.
Online political debate has become an almost complete exercise in “I don’t care”-ism, with hardliners eager to believe they’re right while pointing out that the other side is fueling a violent atmosphere. Many of these hardliners are refusing to acknowledge that their own rhetoric has contributed to the dark atmosphere in politics today, instead focusing only on the ugly rhetoric of their political opponents.
The fact is, we have all allowed political rhetoric to become overheated in a fragmented information ecosystem where algorithms reward outrage and rhetoric that dehumanizes those with whom we disagree.
This current standoff between Trump and Biden is emblematic of that divide. They didn’t even shake hands before the debate. It’s a small gesture, but neither could do it. I worry that neither side thought shaking hands was good base politics.
If they really wanted to bring the country together, they could agree to run joint political ads during the election season, where the two of them would sit next to each other and address their differences to their supporters without causing any discomfort. That’s something the country desperately needs right now. Perhaps this is unlikely, but it’s not unprecedented recently, as Utah’s 2020 gubernatorial candidates preached civility in a joint ad. But I’d rather be hopeful than cynical right now. Sadly, I fear neither side will agree to something like that, for fear of how it might play out politically. But, once again, there is hope.
But that’s the point: Both former and future presidents need to scold themselves and their supporters for the Armageddon-like rhetoric that so many of them use too often.
Is this a likely development in this race? Probably not, but it’s something the country desperately needs and it would be natural for both candidates to take this into consideration, since both want legitimacy if elected president.
At the end of the day, if we want better, more gentle government, we, the American voters, must demand it. We cannot fall into the partisan trap of assuming that those with whom we disagree politically are the worst kind of people.
It’s not healthy for the country as a whole to think that if our side loses this presidential election will be the last. I don’t believe that. I have much more faith in democracy at the local and grassroots level. But the number of so-called responsible elected officials who insist that democracy is over if our side loses is a big part of the problem.
The main reason humans invented politics was to come up with better ways to resolve conflicts without using violence. The moment you bring violence into the equation, thatThat’s when we really start to lose our democracy.
With less than two years to go until the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, the coming weeks will test both parties and both candidates to see whether one or both rise to the occasion — to prove that whoever presides over that anniversary can keep this unique experience of self-governance intact.
