Punditmas (known as Election Day by all you normies) is fast approaching, and today is the first day of Punditmas Advent, marked by the first debate of the year.
For all the millennials who care more about Kim & Kanye, Snapchat, or whatever is cool now than politics, a presidential debate is this thing that happens three times every election year where the two major candidates get on a stage and repeat fragments of their stump speeches, except this time they repeat them at each other rather than to crowds of adoring fans.
At least, that's how a presidential debate in any year but this year would look.
I honestly have no idea what to expect tonight. Does Donald Trump come out swinging, like the unhinged drunken master we saw in the Republican debates, and pummel "Crooked Hillary" with various insults about her health and proficiency at emailing things? Or does he sit back and strike a more measured tone, as we've seen him briefly do several times in the last few weeks? Does Hillary Clinton project calm and bait Trump into making a rhetorical fool of himself, or does she get out the shrill attack-dog voice and berate Trump for being "racist, sexist, homophobic," and any other vaguely SJW-sounding insults she can muster?
I don't know. What I do know is that this debate will be all about the people on the stage, and not about their policy. And that's a shame.
In an era where protests in American cities easily boil over into riots, where Christians and innocents are slaughtered by the thousands by a nation of radical Islamic terrorists, and where uncertainty and insecurity about our world are daily realities, America needs a true leader. Someone who realizes that this election is not about them, but about America's future; someone who can bring our people together rather than push us further apart. That leader will not be debating tonight, and as far as I can tell, that leader is not running for president. So I won't be voting for either of the people on stage.
Perhaps I'm an idealist, you think. Maybe I don't realize that my vote counts. The Trump Train will shriek: "If you don't vote Trump, you're voting for a crooked habitual liar named Hillary!" Clinton's various surrogates will yell: "If you don't vote Clinton, you're voting for a racist self-obsessed dumpster fire named Trump!" If I think that neither of these caricatures are entirely correct, and that the choice isn't as binary as both of these camps think, does that make me naive or realistic?
What I know is that my vote is an expression of my desire for this country's direction. I want America to be a place where limited government, free markets, and common respect rule the day. What I do not want is an America where we pick our candidates like finalists on a reality TV show. I'm tired of the endless hype and histrionics.
Most of all, though, I am tired of arguing with those who believe this election has some sort of apocalyptic significance. On the day after Election Day, we will probably get up and go about our lives just like any other day. The media will have a new toy to play with in the form of our next President-Elect - I did nickname Election Day PUNDITmas, after all - but the American people will be the losers. We will be farther apart than before, no better off than before, and will have four more years of partisan bickering to look forward to. It's sad.
The best we can do is to pray. Pray for our nation's direction. Pray for our next president, whoever he or she might be. And most importantly, pray for a new Great Awakening. As Augustine said, "our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."
No comments:
Post a Comment