I've often expressed my mistrust of elections. I've paid attention to a few both in my own country and those abroad, and so far, not one has shifted my belief that the genuinely well-intentioned politicians (if they exist) fall off long before they garner mass recognition. To put simply, if so-and-so was actually going to change anything, they would've stopped them from running.
Still, we persist in holding out for heroes. As our American cousins rush out to vote (and brawl over ballots, no doubt), many of them do so with earnest hope in their heart that something better will come. And are they wrong to do so?
Come election time, we all get a little bit like small children waiting for Santa. All wide-eyes and suddenly believing in flying reindeer. Is it as harmless now as it was when we were kids? Maybe. After all, the only alternative would be a revolution so bloody and improbable that it would destroy the foundation of what we've been raised to expect from life. I'm not sure we're prepared for such a thing. Elections work and entice us every time they come around because they're bite-sized, palatable illusions of agency. They get us all tingly and thinking that our inane good intentions actually matter.
Do they?
Probably not.
Add your voice to the choice. But you can only speak one among a select few pre-programmed phrases, in which case, does that still count as freedom of speech? Something sounds screwy to me. Surely, true freedom of speech should've gotten us some actual good guys in politics by now, shouldn't it? Except it's mostly the same crooks it's always been.
Trump's a class-A crook. He seems honest, like all good swindlers. But he's rotten at core. Worse yet, he's all bark. He may talk about all the fine, good-heart things he does and will do, but we already have a term to look back on... and find him wanting. For me, at the end of the day, Trump's the man who could've pardoned Julian Assange and spared that man so much suffering. And he didn't.
Kamala seems like a wonky indigestion dream that you can't wake from. She doesn't seem a serious political candidate to anyone because she's not. She can't talk, she's about as loyal as autumn foliage when it comes to values and policy, and let's be real for a second, she's goofy. Politicians have always been an act, but they used to have some class. Lately, it seems they (Democrats, especially) are churning out one goofball after another. If they were HBO producers, we woulda long switched channels. What do we do if they're in charge of a (still) major economic power, however?
We hope and we pin those little "I voted" stickers to ourselves and pat ourselves on the back if "our guy" wins. We know, of course, that that's a fallacy. None of them are "our guys". Our guy is the honest person next door who helps you out when you run into unexpected car trouble or when you're scared or hurt or in need in some way. Be assured, neither the Don nor Kamala are "your guy" in the long run, but maybe we can be each other's, and maybe there's some hope to be had in that.
Music to watch the elections to:
It is, after all, #threetunetuesday (thanks to 
All hail the stumbling child king
Calling for the vanishing light
Now stay with us, as brothers
Through this darkest of nights, oh
This song meant so much to me during the lockdown. It gave me such hope, particularly the beginning. "There is no end in sight" seems, still, an apt reflection of the dire circumstances we find ourselves in.
My brothers in arms
Swords of the legion
Light of my eye
There is no end in sight
Our nation's twisting like prey
And the blood of the ebbing day
Behind these walls of Alesia
Let's pray
Nothing's ever over
There is no closure
No fulfillment nor relief
You'll have to trust me on this
Another pandemic throwback for me, but still very applicable. More so, even.
Not in my name, oh no, not in my name
Don't take me for a fool
Not in my name, oh no, not in my name
For I am onto you [...]
You claim all blades are sheathed now
But you put half a world to flight
For what you want this nation to be
We deem the price too high
I always felt (obviously) deeply about that first line. Not in my name, none of this madness. It seemed evident to me that it should be most sane humans' attitude towards these maniacal, despotic governments. Some people think it's not from a citizen's perspective, though, but from God's, and I think that's a beautiful sentiment, too.
