“No, I don’t want to watch the debate, I just want to watch what SNL does to it after the candidates give them a lot to work with,” I remember saying to a friend. Ironically, on Wednesday the 19th of October, I ended up watching the final presidential debate, and I still have yet to watch the SNL mockery of it. I watched what was called, “the closest thing to a normal debate yet,” and wondered what this country will become. I saw Facebook blow up on both sides, and I am sure that I would have seen the same on Twitter had I been an active twitter user, but I said absolutely nothing about the debate.
Around the end of September or early, I decided that I was done with this election and that I would not write anything more regarding the candidates, nor post anything regarding them. Although I am breaking that pact now as I write this, until the election is over, this will most certainly be my last piece on the election.
Much of this decision had to do with frustration that I felt every time I saw something on Facebook that a friend shared going off about the many wrongs of the other candidate. I know people who are passionate about both candidates. I found their posts and propaganda annoying because no amount of ranting about one candidate’s wrongs will make the other candidate any better than he or she already is. When your candidate is good because the other candidate is horrible, then is your candidate actually a good candidate?
Furthermore, I will not fall under the illusion that anything that I post about either candidate is going to change anyone else’s election decision. It is probably highly more likely that if I decide to post a Facebook rant on a particular candidate, the people who see that rant who are supporting the candidate I rant about will then support their candidate with greater fervor. Additionally, any post about either candidate will also serve to annoy other people like me who are just tired of hearing about the decrepit state that our democracy has turned into.
Moreover, any post that I do write about a candidate will only add to heighten the conflict between the two warring sides in the United States right now. In a time of hyperpolarized politics, we do not need more people arguing and fighting about their beliefs. It is time for people to actually look at the perspectives of others and understand why they believe what they believe. It is time for people to approach politics peacefully. Now, the first step in the healing process between the two sides would likely be stepping back and taking a break from the conflict that the two candidates present.
Although I despise both presidential candidates from the major political parties, I do prefer one candidate to the other, yet I will not say whom, for right now that is beside the point. Right now I want our country to become more united, go to the polls, and put this election behind us with grace. It is time to stop the damage that has been done and be willing to accept November’s results, whatever they may be.
