Polls will be the death of me this year. I have a visceral reaction to every bad poll I see, and I consider it a bad poll whenever Trump is leading nationally or in any swing state, but also when he’s getting more than the Alan Keyes Constant of twenty-eight percent.
It’s true that there’s some fear that arises, but it’s much more an enervating feeling, like falling into an abyss. It’s close to despair, not about President Joe Biden’s chances of reelection but about the moral and intellectual qualities of so many of my fellow Americans. Often my first reaction is simply to snap shut my laptop, or maybe to stop trying to think or write about politics by playing chess.
With complete honesty, I admit the fact that I find it deeply, deeply demoralizing that half the country prefers Trump to anyone. It makes me want to stop trying. It makes me want to crawl in bed and pull the covers over my head.
I don’t enjoy admitting this either, as I imagine it gives Trump supporters great satisfaction to see how their political opposition responds to their success in shaping public opinion. But I do it for others that feel as I do and maybe don’t see anyone openly expressing it. I think it’s okay to feel this way as long as you find a way to snap out of it, over and over again.
It’s not easy, though, because the problem is that what’s depressing me can’t be fixed. It’s written in indelible marker. It’s why I had a hard time celebrating the historically great midterm election results that defied polling and pundit predictions of a red wave. It’s good to win. It’s good to exceed expectations, but the margins didn’t change my mind about the depravity of so many of our countrymen.
I still have faith that Trump will lose in November and ultimately go to prison. Any other outcome will not be something I think I can personally recover from. But I admit that a lot of damage is already done, and no outcome can repair it.
Again, they are oversampling Republicans. They aren’t perfect but look at the Iowa Electronic Market.
Interesting resource, thanks.
I feel you,
One thing that helps me keep perspective is remembering that we’ve been here before: https://masscommons.wordpress.com/2016/11/28/weve-been-here-before-1920s-edition/
The 1920s are one example. KKK stood, proclaimed one Grand Imperial Dragon, “undying opposition to Koons, Kikes, and Katholics”. The nation’s total population was just over 100 million; the KKK’s all-male, all-white, all-Protestant membership was around 4 million. The Klan sponsored sports teams and musical groups that performed publicly. They held parades and weekend-long rallies/festivals with activities for the whole family attended by tens of thousands. (Think: mini-Coachellas and Woodstocks, etc., but family-friendly and for racists.)
A large and complex set of factors (including the Great Depression) led to the Klan’s collapse/defeat by the end of the decade. We can learn from that history, but perhaps the biggest point is that it took a 15-20 year struggle (starting from the 1915 release of “Birth of a Nation”) to push back, with partial success (e.g., immigration laws weren’t liberalized until 1965), against the violent, racist, and nativist movement spearheaded by the Klan.