“…It’s the end of the world as we know it,
It’s the end of the world as we know it,
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”
R.E.M. It’s The End Of The World
If partisan pundits are to be believed, we are apparently continuing our streak of “the most consequential election of our lifetime”. Our political discourse tends toward the apocalyptic, where we seem ever to be clinging to the brink of oblivion. We have Sean Hannity warning us that a second President Clinton guarantees the end of our nation, while Bono tells us that Trump is potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America, and The Washington Post draws upon the well worn Hitler analogy. Godwin’s Law should apply here, but the conversation has only begun, what with Glenn Beck promising that a Trump victory means the sinister ascension of the dread “Alt Right”, and Trump surrogates warning that a Hillary victory means terrorists flooding the nation and Iran shooting nuclear missiles at us. It is a difficult choice indeed, how would you like your apocalypse? Me, I am filled with enough dread over the possibility of a President whose limited vocabulary of four letter words is a perfect fit for his Twitter penchant, or the equally frightening prospect of being scolded for eight years by a Madam President who sounds uncannily like my ex wife.
Can’t something be a bad idea without it meaning the end of the world? Why can’t we insist that someone is a poor choice without suggesting that they are the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler? Our tendency toward hyperbole in our politics, with progressives drawing bogey men from the past, and conservatives drawing them from the future, demonstrates a myopic focus on the present where clear readings of history and of prophecy become blurred echoes only to be used to frighten the children and persuade the ignorant. If we honestly remembered the monsters of the past, and clearly discerned the final apocalypse, we could not in good conscience compare these two doddering senior citizens to those nightmares.
If Trump is to be crowned, as Mr. Bono suggests, potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America, there is some stiff competition: slavery, the alien and sedition acts, Manifest Destiny, the Civil War, Jim Crow, Prohibition, Japanese internment camps, Vietnam, Roe V Wade, the election of Barak Obama… We are a government by the people, and people make mistakes… we have made many, but there are many that we have fixed, and many more mistakes that we never made. The mistakes become part of our story, the fixes add to our strength. I’m not saying we ought not do our best to avoid mistakes, I think Hillary would be one, but I’ve not seen one yet that would spell our demise. Change is not a one way street, and when a change becomes unpalatable, the people change things again. Balance returns, young girls sing, teenage boys ride their skateboards, old men laugh… life goes on.
IMHO: We continually revert to monarchical perspectives when looking for potential leaders. They are either saviors or tyrants, christs or anti-christs. We see them as the Moses who will lead us to the promised land or the Devil who will bring us to the abyss. The end will not come from the actions of one person, but by the falling away of all. We get the leaders we deserve, and if we want better leaders, we need to be better people. We do not have an appointed monarch ruling by some version of divine right, we have a government by the people, and we elect people to represent us in leadership. Ultimately these leaders are a reflection of the voters who elect them, and those voters are always changing. All elected leaders will make mistakes, some will be mistakes; but we are a Republic, and by God’s grace we have kept it; by God’s grace we will keep it.
kevincaildotcom 
First of all, great to see your back! I see your disdain for our candidates remains unchanged, not surprised. With over 300 million people in our great Country… these are our choices? The new to the game four word master, the compulsive liar, the dope smoker (ingester) and the communist that thinks everyone should have a federal job if they wish. Like it or not these are the choices we shall pick our next POTUS. I for one are guilty of suggesting “this election, is the most important of our lifetime”, even though I said the same two years ago, and even before that. Although it appears a replica,I sincerely believe it to be true. It seems every election cycle is a move to protect a more basic right, a distinct Liberty, a series of elections that continue to move us further to the left. I fear we are losing and therefore each election battle is more important than the last. It’s not the fear of a four year decision but the accumulation of the last eight and now a possible eight more in the same direction. Eight years ago, the citizens heard only the word “change” and we all knew it was needed but the minority of voters heard more. They heard the definition of change and that was “fundamental transformation” which in fact, has damaged our nation to the point where a roll of the dice on Donald appears the only hope and choice. Like it or not, these are our choices and four years of Donald is more recoverable if disastrous than sixteen years of fundamental transformation. The lack of interest, the lack of participation, the lack of exercising our most basic right has allowed our system of self governance, our constitutional republic, to dissolve into something almost unimaginable to our founders. You’re absolutely right. We reap what we sow now, and it’s no fault but our own. God bless America! We need it badly!
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