A national survey released last fall by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in partnership with the Brookings Institution found that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe democracy is "at risk" in the upcoming presidential election. And about 25% of those surveyed said they think that "American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country."
How in the name of God did the United States of America get to this place in history? To blame only Trump and the Republicans is foolish. To blame only the left-wing and Democrats is equally idiotic.
If you think that this is just Moran playing the "bothsidesism" game, you either haven't been paying attention to what's been happening or you're so besotted with partisanship that you've been blinded to the simple truth: we're all to blame for the coming catastrophe.
That catastrophe relates to both sides refusing to accept the results of the 2024 presidential election if they don't win. How can they? Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have already sowed the seeds of mistrust and warned that the election would be stolen or that the victor would destroy American democracy.
If Biden loses, does anyone really believe that he and his supporters will walk away peacefully and allow Trump to take office? Biden and his surrogates have made it plain that Donald Trump is an "existential threat" to the American republic. How can Biden, in good conscience, walk away from the presidency and hand the office over to someone he claims will destroy the country?
“He won’t leave office,” former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said recently of Trump. “He already tried not to leave office once. So I think there’s a lot of living in a fantasy world that’s going on with Republicans telling themselves, ‘Look, we’ll vote for him, it won’t be so bad.’ It may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast. It will be that bad.”
And Biden is going to leave office when one of his major surrogates is all but calling for a revolution if Trump wins?
Why isn't the media asking Biden if he'll accept the results of the 2024 election? Why isn't anyone asking him if he will leave office after he loses? How can he leave after telling the world that Donald Trump will destroy America if he's elected?
There are two candidates in this race, and I'm sure the American people would like to know if both of them would accept the will of the people regarding the election's outcome. We already know that Trump won't accept any outcome short of a victory. But what about Biden?
Biden heads a party under the nominal control of left-wing radicals. In that sense, his range of motion when it comes to political maneuvering is extremely limited. Whether Biden can resist the radicals who will insist he not give up the presidency if he loses is the biggest question of 2024.
As for Republicans, they are of the firm belief that the election machinery is in the hands of traitors and partisans so regardless of how close the actual vote count is, Democrats will find a way to steal the election.
Is that rational or even possible? It doesn't matter, according to Reason.com's Matt Welch.
Right and left, stretching back years, and in different matters of degree, have both succumbed to an apocalyptic populism that almost demands rhetorical escalation whenever conditions worsen or appear to. If your starting point is that Gaza pre-October 6 was an open-air concentration camp, that immigrants pre-2024 were "poisoning the blood of our country," that Trump pre-primary season is deliberately mining Hitler for speechwriting tips, then painting your hands a symbolic blood-red before screaming in the face of baby-murderers almost begins to make sense.
But it shouldn't. That's where those of us on the sidelines may have a role. Just because the political class sneezes doesn't mean the rest of us are obliged to catch a cold. We can insist on factual journalism and fair-minded analysis despite the worst efforts of "misinformation reporters." We can encourage loved ones to maybe not go scream slogans in politicians' driveways, or make blanket disparaging statements in public based on the group characteristics of strangers. And, unless we actually enjoy watching certain confrontational behaviors get repeated, we can gently suggest that no ragbag group of 500 protesters be given the potency to shut a great city down.
Hysteria has taken over American politics. It's no longer enough that the opponent wants to take too much of your money in tax dollars or starve your old granny to death. Now your opponent is coming for your children. Republicans talk about "groomers" while Democrats speak of teaching your kids not to be white supremacists.
The biggest problem with deliberately generating hysteria against a politician or a political cause is the aftermath. How do you put the pieces back together after you've painted your opponent as someone who wanted to destroy America?
No one knows. And that right there is the real "existential threat" to the republic.
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