I turned a blind eye to political current events, as well as American democracy in general, for many years of my life. It was an aspect of daily life that I took for granted. Straw polls dispersed earlier in my educational career about whether us children would vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama in the 2012 U.S. presidential election felt trivial; debates over politicians depended on popularity for the youth, while the adults handled the serious dialogue. Even in 8th grade, after Donald Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton to become President in 2016, my peers and I engaged in negligible conversations about who should have won. I am now 19 years old and eligible to vote in 2022, but my delusions of grandeur regarding the political landscape have all but diminished as our country approaches the screaming match that is the 2022 midterms.
When
Roe v. Wade
was overturned, I knew it would become one of the many falling dominoes that have led to the disheartening exemplifications of ‘politics’ that the nation is currently enduring. Observing my home state of Florida, the discrepancies between the presence of Republicans and Democrats are stark and disgraceful on both accounts. In the gubernatorial race, incumbent governor Ron DeSantis (R) is being challenged by one of his predecessors in Charlie Crist (D).
The Washington Post
details how the magnitude of DeSantis’s fiscal support has enabled him to infuse $50 million into his campaign’s televised advertisements, far outstripping Crist’s measly $5.5 million. U.S. citizens would like to believe that one’s own merit should be substantial enough to bear the weight of such a financial disadvantage, but those who are optimistic enough to enjoy this notion risk recycling ahistorical fallacies. It is a fair assessment to declare that we live in unprecedented times, but that does not mean this country is impervious to repeating history.
The New York Times
explained how Richard Nixon cruised his way to presidential victory in 1976 with his massive advertisement budget of $69.3 million. This only slightly outdid the investments committed by donors and lobbyists of the Democratic Party, which stood at $67.3 million, but the determining factor was that about half of this amount was spent promoting the various potential presidential nominees for the party rather than focusing on a sole representative. Politicians talk a lot, but sometimes money talks louder, a lesson Democrats should have learned by now. This thought is particularly critical in anticipation of the fact that another term for DeSantis will surely fuel his boiling-hot momentum leading up to the next presidential election in 2024.
Bordering the illustrious state of Florida is peachy-keen Georgia. The Senate race between former 3-time Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker (R), and incumbent Raphael Warlock (D) is reaching a fever pitch of intensity. The possibility that Walker will become another political force without a résumé, outside of football at least, is creeping toward reality. This prospect is not only frightening because of what it could mean for the U.S. Senate and Georgia, but of how a triumph from Walker will only provide further credence to the manner of how he has conducted his campaign. Walker has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump, known to be a positive boost in the polls among Republicans as of late. He has also pandered towards God-fearing Georgians as a man who has repented for his various sins — these consist of accusations of adultery and aggressively encouraging abortion towards a former romantic partner, a devotedly feminine right for which he has recently vehemently voiced his distaste. (This latter indiscretion contributes to a trend of the progressively blurred lines between the separation of church and state in the public eye.)
The Washington Post
recently quoted a Georgian pastor, named Kyle Garrison, who indicated he would vote for Walker “because the Republican agenda is ‘more aligned with God’s values.’” How do we socially advance as a society when fully-grown adults — and presumably long-time voters — such as Garrison clearly hold our democracy in contempt for its attempts to remove subjective notions from policymaking?
Traveling up to Pennsylvania to witness the Senate race between John Fetterman (D) and Dr. Mehmet Oz (R) does not present any prettier picture. Fetterman fell victim to a stroke earlier this year which has rendered him physically limited in certain aspects of his speech and cognitive abilities. In a time where you can find memes at any given moment on social media that refer to the similar somatic shortcomings of President Joe Biden, Oz was keen to take advantage of this golden opportunity to put Fetterman on blast in front of the masses. This culminated in the duo’s single debate, where Fetterman required closed-captions and Oz continuously condescended to his uncontrollable miscues. Legislative stances aside, events like this only reinforce the political theater that has become necessary to win in a society that continually feeds off soundbites and clickbait.
It is clear that politicians are foaming at the mouth for tactical methods of asserting that their opponents merely depend on moral elitism as a foundational structure in order to distract focus from the actual legislative ramifications at hand. Regardless of whether or not you classify this as a shallow approach, there has been an overwhelming sense of nonchalance from the Democrats that can be traced back to their lack of support for such an important party figure as Crist. Politicians like Oz and Walker seem too much like caricatures for the Democratic Party to believe that they will be afforded the same serious evaluation as their own candidates, but this is the same type of ignorance that was a catalyst for Trump’s ascendancy to presidency. It is an intimidating thought to feel cornered into putting all of a party’s eggs in one basket, in terms of financial support and verbal backing, but how do you think Trump has managed to mobilize the GOP? Trump-endorsed candidates have a 92% primary-race success rate this year (via Ballotpedia statistics reported before the midterm results), and looked likely to potentially inflict disastrous general election defeats for Democrats. Gestures like President Barack Obama’s journey down to Georgia and other surrogate support were steps in the right direction for Democrats, but irrespective of results, there should be more urgency from the political left from now on.