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I am mentally exhausted, burned out and drained. I am suffering from “political fatigue” and there is only one solution. I am not sure about you, but I feel like the election of 2024 has been going on for five years. This election is one for the record books, and I cannot wait for it to be over.
A 78-year-old convicted ex-president versus the first female candidate of color running for the highest elected office in the country who was appointed to run in lieu of the oldest incumbent president who dropped out of the race 3.5 months before election day. I am tired just writing this description.
It seems that every day there is something new, exciting, and often cringe-worthy happening in the contest between these two firsts. The first ex-president to attempt to be re-elected since Grover Cleveland, and the first female to represent a major party to run for President. There have been so many twists and turns and moving parts during this campaign and neither candidate has been able to gain a measurable lead in the polls.
The constant and incessant barrage of mistruths, name calling and threats of what will happen if the other candidate wins is wearing me down. As I write this, about 21 days before election day, the rhetoric is getting more heated, and it is not just for the Presidential election. Candidates for other offices, Congress, Senate, etc. (considered down ballot candidates) are also running extremely negative campaigns.
Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars are being spent by candidates and political action committees digging up dirt and spreading defamatory information about their opponents. While at the same time making promises of instant solutions that they know will be difficult, if not impossible, to keep.
One candidate has made of game of giving opponents nicknames while the other candidate is using their opponents own words against them to try elevating their standing among voters. How desperate is it for a someone to try to build up their standing with others by tearing down the character and personalities of others.
All our country’s problems - inflation, immigration, climate change, global conflicts and war, lawlessness, the border crisis etc. - will all be solved by candidate A or candidate B depending on which candidate or party you want to believe. Your vote is all they need.
Both candidates and their respective parties are making every effort to impress. The airwaves, print media and social media, text messaging and voicemails are filling us with their dogma and fearmongering about what the other candidate will do to our country. Further adding to my exhaustion.
Every election is important for our country, but the election of 2024 is extremely important, if for no other reason than to gauge how our country will move forward under a new administration, be it Republican or Democrat.
Will our world suddenly become a literal Hell on earth if the “Other” candidate wins and “Our” candidate loses? Will the gridlock that has stymied our government to the point that Congress and the President fail to legislate and govern be broken? Oh, how I wish Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill were alive. Two men from opposite sides of the aisle who were able to find common ground and accomplish something.
To me, the most significant question is, will it be possible for Democrats and Republicans to co-exist and find consensus to do their job and legislate in a world where there has been so much rancor and divisiveness? Can our form of representative democracy effectively work again?
If by the time you read this you have voted, I say thank you for doing your civic duty. If you are registered and have not voted and still can, then go vote. If you are neither of these and have not and will not vote, then I say, do not complain.
And to everyone who did not support whoever wins the election of 2024, I say stand down, take a deep breath, pause, and give thanks that you live in a country where you do have a right to participate. Use whatever peaceful means you can to continue to advocate for whatever and whomever you support.
