America is a sucker for the quick and easy. Build the wall, drain the swamp and lock her up won the presidency for Donald Trump in 2016. With a trail of crimes that dwarf those of Al Capone, Trump threatens a repeat performance of the carnage he caused by promoting losers enthralled with terror as a winning strategy for gaining power. In reality, it makes no sense.
Crime out of control. Border chaos. Inflation veering into recession. Minorities erasing Whites. If all those hobgoblins of terror are true, then why are Americans still spending and traveling as if Covid had never happened?
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” FDR told America in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression. Millions were homeless, displaced from the Dust Bowl and selling apples on Big City street corners to feed their kids. Another World War was on the horizon but America’s leaders didn’t tell their people to cower and quake. They told them to keep their chin up and they took the advice until FDR was able to work the political levers to get them relief.
In 2022, there is nothing to fear but fear of the unknown. Technology has hurt as much as it has helped. Stuff happens and we don’t know how. Credit rating is up, then down, due to charges there is not enough time to chase down. True leaders of the great American democracy help their people to understand the baffling nature of the modern global economic system mixed that is inexorably mixed with political power struggles and a social demand for a better life experience. Forward or back in that reach for understanding depends on whether confident curiosity or debilitating fear is the drivig force.
Between the two poles of trust and fear lies the plateau of basic common sense. You can’t avoid news about horrific crimes committed somewhere, but that is no cause to panic over your own safety. A horrific crime like that in Uvalde triggers an alarm for a systemic reform that strengthens future security.
Paradise in America is certainly far off but fanning the flames of anxiety increases fear. It contributes nothing to solutions. Therefore, as the vote in the 2022 midterms nears, it might be helpful to consider whether a canidate helps or hinders an understanding of a currently confusing world.
Help or hurt. Naughty or nice. Stop the steal or stop the fear. Come up with your own quick and easy slogan. Then vote vote for Santa and Darth Vader.
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