The Death of Democracy (as we know it)

My previous post compared the American election to a Three-Ring Circus. Well, the rings have now narrowed to two, and the circus has morphed into a House of Horrors. Which prompts me to once again remind everyone that what you see and hear in the media are the fringes, the ten percent at the far left and the ten percent at the far right (in so far as the "media" will report the right at all, but that is another story.) I want to talk to you about the center. I am a member of the center.

Like my father and my Grandfather before me, I am that most rare of people, neither fish nor fowl (nor good red herring)...I pick and choose my issues and my candidates based on the criteria that matter most to me. Some are to the left, some are to the right, some are even above or below the center. You could call me eclectic or you could call me "American". My political affiliation is so close to the dead center I might as well be the definition. There are lots of others like me, we are, in fact, the majority of Americans. We are not the ten percent that rant on the left, nor are we the ten percent that rage on the right, we are the eighty percent in the middle.

Now that you know where I am starting from, my approach to this election was, "that if nothing else, this election would be entertaining and amusing". Many months later I have had occasion to look back upon those words and reflect just how wrong I was. Seriously wrong. Really, really wrong. Certainly, it was entertaining, and even amusing at first, but as the list of candidates pared down and the field began to narrow, amusing was the first casualty, replaced by worry; and entertaining was next, replaced by horror.

There is a good reason for the worry and the horror. America was founded upon ideals that were at the time, to say the least, revolutionary. That the government should be subservient to the people was wholly without precedent. Even earlier societies that had embraced some form of democracy still held to egalitarianism of one sort or another. For the first time, a nation had arisen that insisted that all men were equal. (Yes, I know that isn't *quite* true, don't kibitz.)

As time went on, these "United States" weathered many trials, growing stronger and moving inexorably towards freedom for all in fact. the Civil War that resulted in emancipation, the Suffrage movement, etc. Life looked good. Then in the 1970's things began to change. Those of you who are students of history know what the cause was, but it is not really material to my point, so...

Here we are, back to an election where an old homily told to me by my Grandfather has come back to haunt me. You have all heard this in some form, "If you cannot vote for a candidate, then vote against". Well, that hasn't worked out so well for me in the last few elections, which should tell you a good bit about the last few elections and where I wanted them to go. But this one is different, we now have an election where the entire voter base is literally "voting against". If it wasn't enough that there are there no good options, the future of Democracy and the American dream is quite literally hanging in the balance also. The outcome of this election will change the entire World for decades to come.

Halfway across the continent, I can hear my Grandfather laughing at me from the grave.