Yeah, I know, nobody really likes to talk about politics, and frankly I don’t really either. But thanks to the world around me, I’ve become more aware of politics, even if I can’t necessarily believe that the decisions of people so high will ever affect me at my ground level, but it matters to a lot of people in my little world, so I acknowledge a lot more than I’d really want to admit to.
Anyway, a big deal is being made about the recent Georgia 6th Congressional District race; and how it ended in a manner very disagreeable to the vast majority of my friends as well as the Democratic liberal people primarily of my general era of likeminded peoples. Basically, in spite of all the social media activism, lobbying and celebrity involvement, a Republican defeated a Democrat, and nothing at all seems to have changed.
In short, a woman who has gone on record and went viral for saying she does not support a living wage won an election for a Congressional seat. The majority of American people also voted for a man with no military or political experience who has said similarly deplorable things and has a laundry list of sexual deviancy allegations as President of the United States.
If elections were decided by the internet and on social media, Democrats would probably steamroll every single one. Liberals love to talk a big game, and post and share and retweet all the virtues of their preferred candidates and just how bad the Republican candidate is, with all applicable factoids. But when it comes time to deliver, quiet conservatives are still the ones with the tenacity and drive to get out of their houses, get on the roads, and pack the voting stations and cast their votes, and the proof is in the results, whether they are liked or not.
The morning after, I’m seeing words “wake-up call” and wondering how many wake-up calls it’s going to take for Democrats to get off their asses and make the difference they keep clamoring for. I wonder about the popular notions that Democrats are all the younger generation, minorities, and those with alternative lifestyles, while Republicans are all old and white and conservative; in spite of the arrogance of Democrats, just how many times will they lose before they realize they need to actually win something to have any credence?
I wonder why as Americans, we’re so divided, and why politics are so riddled with words like “victory” and “defeat” and “opponents,” and why our own president goes so out of his way to gloat and deride his fellow Americans because they don’t agree with him.
Whatever, though. This is getting way longer than I had intended it to. The bottom line is that the initial thought that spurred this vomit of words is that I don’t think any amount of lobbying, social activism-ing or even money is going to ever swing the political power pendulum from Republican to Democrat. I do not think that Republicans will remain in power for as long as it seems like they might, however I do not think that there will ever be a glorious win for the Democratic, a symbolic taking of power from their opposition.
No, I think the political change will simply happen when the old and white and conservative voters of yesterday all begin dying off, and will simply be outnumbered by the still-living liberal thinking of the younger Democratic voters. It will be no victory as much as it is basically outlasting a slow and demoralizing battle of attrition.
And then when the Democrats have the power, then the roles will be reversed, and a generation of miserable Republicans can eventually go into hiding and eventually rise themselves. Hopefully, I’ll either be dead or too old to care by then.
At least for me, one thing is probably never going to change – I don’t like politics, and think all it accomplishes is dividing up people, and that nothing good really comes from divisiveness.
