I love this article because the thesis takes a step back from emotionalism, tribalism and over-simplified reaction and begins a probing for alt-paradigms as contrasted with enraged zealots or status quo.
If we gathered an under 40 year old crowd of 1000 citizens statistically representative of any region in the US … what are the chances if asked for 2 presidential candidates they would submit the two more than 70 year old presumptive political party white guys now on the projected ballot … who represent at the core a type of “status quo / keep the lid on”?
The idea of choosing “not-voting” as a type of vote is not an option for me — too many people have given their lives, fortunes, energy, labor and love for the right to vote. I admit that I am seriously considering writing in a vote based on my assessment (however cloudy or counter-productive) that no real choice, no realistic vision, is, as best I can assess for me, being offered. And I am politically a wishy-washy centralist too philosophical and conceptual for my own good. I think if God was political she/he/it might spew me out from the mouth as being neither hot or cold.
It seems to me we are in a time of radical and accelerated change across virtual every category from environmental to economic to biological to morality to “infinity and beyond” as Buzz Lightyear might say. Unfortunately (and I am idealistic and don’t want this to be true) it seems pain and crisis are often what works to forge movement to a new system and innovation.
In sum … It’s not Donald Trump or Joe Biden that make me the most nervous — my assessment is they are both largely self-promoting opportunists relatively non-inclined to true/scary ideological zealotry. I may be wrong in that assessment. What concerns and is of acute curiosity to me is what will emerge as the alternative to “non-choice”. I am not that confident that, in spite of the endorsement of Biden by the field of former Democratic candidates, that he improves the odds of a better landing when the chaos smoke clears. A better landing, for me, implies a closer alignment to the lofty and idealistic goals upon which this country was founded: Life and healthy well being for all, equal justice for all, safety, enablement, liberty and freedom of every individual in pursuit of their soul’s highest calling.
The situation may get more tumultuous and rancorous before the alt-paradigm emerges. My sincere prayer is new leaders and vision will emerge with the least possible harm (especially for the most vulnerable) and with the least amount of hatefulness, violence and cost to our most valuable cargo — the inventory we carry of the highest ideals of benevolent angelic aspiration and innovation that can be found in the human spirit. No one has a monopoly on that spirit and it is never revealed without contrite inclusion of diverse ideas and perspectives while holding at all times a commitment to national unity.
