In thinking about this election, it's clear to me that this is the most important election of the past 100 years, if not the most important in the history of this, our republic.
The stakes in terms of policies have been outlined elsewhere so I won't cover in detail, but here's a synopsis:
- increasing use of war as an instrument of national policy vs. return to diplomacy and international alliances;
- economic policy tilted exclusively to the benefit of the rich vs. a more level playing field;
- war on inconvenient science vs. respect for facts;
- increasing ascendency of religious extremists in our government vs. return to the ideals of secular government.
But there's something else at stake beyond all these, with profound significance for the progressive movement.
The stake in this election that I'm writing about here is this: do we, the progressive (and more civilized) faction in American politics, finally learn how to successfully fight a barbaric and unprincipled opposition? Election after election, the Republicans with their thuggish tactics, their Joseph-Goebbels-style systematic lying and their blatant (to us at least) misuse of religion and patriotism, have won the day. Will this be the time that the nation refuses to be suckered by these tactics? If not now, with the stakes so clear and the record of the past 8 years so incontrovertibly awful, I despair of it ever happening. And if we lose this one, I fear that's it for this republic as anything resembling a democratic society.
We must fight for this, and fight hard and smart.