By Rick Boettger
Yes, one of the lesser evils survived the last election, but the real winners were we Independents. It was our first national takeover!
We topped out at 51% of the electorate compared with 25% Red and just 23% Blue., before we lost a few points, as a few I’s changed back to whomever they voted for, just to avoid the cognitive dissonance. This number of us I’d expect to continue to increase, following the decline in church attendance, now down to 30% of Americans. That’s because being a member of the Reds or Blues has become just like being a devoted churchgoer, politically. It’s a matter of faith and conscience, not reason.
The current Red-Blue clash reminds me of the War of the Roses in England. It was between the Reds and the White (roses) and was won by neither, Henry VII defeating both as the first Tudor king. My bet is that’s what’s happening here. The Reds and Blues will both lose to an outsider, one of us Independents! Hooray! Everybody, we can all cheer up now! Unleash the exclamation points!!!!!
The religious analogy is not patronizing. Having a shared faith with a church family is an extraordinary consolation to mortality and the other troubles of the world, arguably the first glint of human as opposed to animal intelligence. Cynthia and I met in her lifelong church, her only Key West family for the 17 years before we met. We were singing in the choir and on the Board of Directors together, how quaint is that. We miss it.
Now, our political parties have taken the part of church, especially for the increasingly secular among us. Having a group with shared beliefs, who will love you just for sharing and voicing those beliefs, with an utter faith in every detail within them, is tremendously warm and consoling.
Unfortunately, the down side of faithful fervor is e.g., the Inquisition; many versions of the War of the Roses; and a supercilious scorn of outsiders, who may even be going to HELL. Sadly, that is what has happened to our quasi-religious Party affiliations. Both sides descended to threatening eternal damnation, now called “the end of democracy,” if you chose the other. By myself voting for a third party, I felt a bit like a Jew in the Middle Ages, or heretical apostate, in the presence of my favorite political congregation.
As in religion, both sides are utterly convinced of their rectitude and the others’ evil. These two 24%-and-falling groups both think that they represent true America and everyone else. The opposition and political atheists, we don’t matter.
Well, dear friends, I have news for you. Each side is now a small minority and, even together, we independents outnumber you. WE are the ruling wave of the future. WE determine which of the two evils wins now. Trump won by kissing more centrist ass well enough to win (not to my ass’s taste), and that’s the way it will be until we centrists get it together enough to field our own candidate. We almost did this time. If we could have gotten Oprah, Tom Hanks, or George Clooney to go with the Greens or No Labels it would have been this time. Trump’s win should convince their ilk that supporting either party is a waste, and they will need to have the ego and sacrificial fury of a Donald Trump if they really want to take back America for the now-ruling sensible, objective, fact-based independent majority.
Blues, watch an episode of “Life, Liberty, and Levin” on Fox. Reds, watch an episode of “The Readout with Joy Reid” on MSNBC. You will both think the other side is rabidly nuts. Well, that is not only exactly the way the other side thinks of YOU, but that is how the ruling majority of Independents think of BOTH of you. You can cancel us as much as you want. We get along fine with ourselves, thank you, and can’t wait until you take the Matrix-like pill that snaps you out of your quasi-religious, perfervid positions. Can’t wait to have you back to reality, my dear friends–just able to disagree intelligently and respectfully, as we did in college in the 1960’s.
Sweet memories of youth…..
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