Crossposted from Entropy
You know, I'm so tired of this election year. It was kinda fun in January when I sat in a schoolroom with more than 40 other people who wanted to make a difference in the democratic process. It was a thrill standing up for your guy, being counted as supporting someone. The finagling was fun when it turned out that your first choice didn't pass quorum. It was fun watching a UAW worker shine a flashlight at you and beckon you to 'see the light' and come join his party.
When the Republicans turned on their spin machines it stopped being fun. Well, I say spin machines, but that's not what happened. The thing that it's taken me a while to realize, the thing that still really hasn't sunk into my deeper being, is that Republicans don't spin. I can play Devil's Advocate for just about any platform. I tend to do that because I'm basically a sympathetic person at heart. I can see the other side of the argument. I can imagine how people can feel a certain way. I'm empathic most of the time when I stop to think about things.
The thing is though... Republicans believe what they say. They believe what they're told by their 'trusted sources' of information. As much as I cannot believe what I hear come from a Republicans mouth, they can't believe what comes from my mouth.
What America is divided over is not the issues. It's not the moral fiber of the candidates. It's not even what we think about the war anymore. We are divided, deeply divided, on who we trust. Ultimately trust is a mater of faith, and the divisions in Americans today are approaching Biblical proportions.
What do you do when you cannot personally verify your sources of information? You entrust a proxy to bring you the information. You instill in that proxy (or proxies) a level of trust that makes their word worth more than that of other sources. You have faith in your 'trusted source'.
The trouble today is that the two main camps of 'trusted sources' are so pervasive and in such opposition to each other. Maybe it's always been this way. Maybe I've just begun to see things as they've always been. Perhaps it's been augmented by the 24 hours News cycle and the prevalence of the Internet, which gives the views of either side of this conflict of sources an echo chamber to enhance their message and fervor.
I do know that this election stopped being about who tells the truth a long time ago. This election, and the future of America, has become a contest of 'who do you believe', 'in whom do you entrust your faith?' That's it. Perhaps I'm naive for not seeing this before. Do you trust a radio blow hard that uses words like feminazi, or do you trust a movie blow hard that uses images of 'My Pet Goat' to make his point?
That's what it comes down to. Who do you trust? You can rationalize that decision any way you want to. You can dig up as many tid bits from your 'trusted sources' as you care to to rationalize your decision, but in the end, at it's most basic level, you have to make your decision as a mater of faith. In the face of contradictory evidence and an inability to personally verify claims you have to close your eyes and do what you feel is right.
What we fail to see, what I have failed to see, is that we all do this. We all believe in our own choices. Republicans aren't bad people that we should demonize. They aren't evil for believing differently. Their faith has brought them to a differing opinion. To rail against them, or the reciprocal, does nothing to advance ourselves or our nation.
In a way I'm glad that the last year has been such a tumultuous election year. It has taught me that and effort to persuade, to convert, someone set in their beliefs is a futile effort. All opinions are equally valid. It does nothing but bring suffering upon yourself to attempt to change another. By realizing this I am closer to escaping from the suffering I've felt this last year.