Falling Back, 51. Day of Reckoning.

This morning I had to take one of my cats to the vet, to check his broken paw. As the veterinarian wound a new bandage around the leg, he started talking about the United States elections today. "Why would a country as intelligent as the United States choose someone like Trump?"

That's a good question. Why would any thinking, rational person decide that a reality TV star, with various bankruptcies behind him, a reputation for double-dealing, lying, and sexual harrassment, be a good candidate to run the country? My answer to the vet was, "People said the same about Germany in the 1930's. How could a country, with such culture as Germany, decide that a buffoon like Hitler was a good idea as chancellor?"

In the end, it's much the same. People follow leaders who say what they wish they could say. Leaders who will promise them what they want to hear. Leaders who will accept that their unfounded fears are legitimate and work upon them. Leaders, who, in the end, only care about their own skin and no one else's. 

Many people don't want to think. Let's face it, it takes energy to do so. It's ever so much easier to accept something we are told, rather than think and investigate to find out if it's true or even tenable. It's much easier to accept a stereotype, like, "all blacks are thieves," or "immigrants come to steal our jobs," or "gays are perverts and will bring down God's wrath." It is simple and reassuring to believe stupidities like these because it sets everything down in black and white. There is no thinking to do, no subtleties to understand, no reasons to look for behind suppositions.  

Some people seem to be waking up, and there are people who voted for him who are voting against him this year. Enough that it seems most of the country has turned out to vote. So far, up till today, close to a hundred million registered voters have already cast their ballot, either through the mail, or on early voting dates. Enough that those who prefer not to think, but to continue imposing their version of reality, find threatening. Voters have been intimidated in various different states. Roads have been cut off in an attempt to keep people from getting near polling places (and work, and school...). Even a sheriff in one state decided to tear gas two hundred people waiting in line to vote, including elderly and children. I haven't checked online news yet, but today, Election Day, might be dangerous in some places. 

Of course, with so many ballots to count, it will take longer to know the real winner than just one night after the polls close. In the meantime, fraud will be claimed, and people might get hurt. Because a buffoon like Trump will not go down without a fight. I call him a buffoon because it's easy to laugh at him and his followers, but he is much more dangerous.

It's come to this. It's come to the point where standing in line to vote in the United States might become as dangerous as doing so in a country like Afghanistan. All because people don't want to think for themselves, and because power in the hands of a fool corrupts the fool and those who surround him. One can only hope that cool heads will protect the most important right of everyone who lives in a democracy - the right to vote according to their own conscience.

Life continues. Let's hope the American experiment does, as well.