I watched all of 15 minutes of the first presidential debate. Then, I turned it off and went to bed early. I told my wife that this election cycle seems to be to be surreal.
One dictionary definition of “surreal,” is, “of or like a dream; fantastic, hallucinatory, bizarre, etc.” I don’t know about being a dream or fantastic, but it certainly is bizarre. It may be the most bizarre election in modern American history. I keep hoping that it is “hallucinatory,” but, nope. It’s real. And bizarre.
Without getting into the personalities, or histories, or policies of the two major candidates, something posted on Facebook seems to sum it up, for me at least: “338 million people in America and THIS is the best we could do?” But we did this. We either did not vote in the primaries, and have lost the right to have an intelligent opinion, or we did vote in the primaries and this is what we, the American citizenry, have decided. Bizarre.
Now, the Democrats and Republicans will fight and claw to the death over “their” candidate but polls show that neither candidate is trusted, neither candidate is liked, and neither candidate comes without significant negative baggage. It has been said that 90 percent of likely voters have made their minds up already, so all the debates, all the rallies, and all the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent are to try to convince that undecided 10 percent to swing their way.
I heard on the news the other day that friends are being lost and that family members are being estranged over their choice of one or the other candidate. People have “unfriended” people with whom they disagree and the polarization in the nation is at an all-time high. Some people are afraid to put political signs in their yards for fear of offending the neighbors and losing friends. Bizarre.
Hollywood is involved, as they always are, either on the Left or the Right, but why people would listen to them pontificate about anything has always puzzled me. These are people who read lines that other people have provided for them for a living. I once watched a popular actress being interviewed whose performances I enjoyed greatly. But, when she was one on one with the interviewer, she couldn’t string two coherent sentences together. Not without a script anyway. She came across as dumb as a post. But we live in a society that values celebrity above nearly everything else. If you’re famous, it doesn’t matter if you are dumb.
What I really want is a do-over. I want to go back two years and do all of the nominating over again. I think that surely the American people, if they could have a do-over, would make different, better choices. But, of that, I really have no confidence. Even if we could, there is scant evidence that we would.
So, we are about to elect someone to the most powerful office in the world and Americans, generally speaking, are not happy about either prospect. And I say “either prospect” because the two minor party candidates have a snowball’s chance in the center of the sun at being elected. And the people will have to live with their choice for the next four years.
And who is to blame? We are. We ceased to demand excellence, competence, honesty, civility, and integrity in our leaders long ago. We are about to install into the office of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln one of these two people who are intensely disliked and distrusted. And that just seems surreal.
It seems downright bizarre.
[David Epps is the pastor of Christ the King Church (www.ctkcec.org.). He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South, (www.midsouthdiocese.org) which consists of Georgia and Tennessee and is the associate endorser for his denomination’s military chaplains. He may be contacted at [email protected].]
