I am a fan of the Sunday morning public affairs shows. Each week I watch and listen to elected officials from both major political parties as they offer their predictable talking points on “the issues” and their adversaries.
My view is that most members of the media miss the underlying crisis exhibited each week by the interviews they bring to America’s voters. One party - The Republicans - approaches its role in American life in a very different way from most Democrats. That party views Democrats and progressive social and political positions as not merely wrong, but evil, dangerous and a threat to the survival of mankind. There is no objective evidence that the other party thinks of mainstream conservatism (as opposed to “Trumpism”) in the same way.
The hysterical and irrational view of life by one major party has translated into a rather simple and alarming trend. Anyone who runs for elected office as a Trump Republican must be elected regardless of character, qualifications, decency, competency. That is, if you are “right” on the issues, you could be a recently parolled registered sex offender and it would not matter. In fact, one such Trump Republican actually said this in a recent interview. What is most important, above all else, is that Republicans take control of the Senate. Win at all costs is now their open and guiding principle.
A democracy cannot survive if the election of its representatives ignores character, ethics, values, education, competency and empathy. A democracy cannot survive if desire for power among those who seek to serve in public life is the highest and best priority.
One can look back on American history and not find a comparable sickness infecting the body politic. That sickness exists today not only at the federal level but in local and state elections all over the USA.
There are many crises in American life today. Crime, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, economics, the war in Ukraine, the crimes of Trump. But I believe that the most immediate crisis in America is its very survival as a nation. Everything else comes in second.