My Own State Of The Union Address--Election Week Version

At the current time, the state of the Union could be described with two words. Those two words are 'divided' and 'authoritarian.'

So far, 75,713,319 votes have been cast for Joe Biden while 71,246,793 have been cast for Donald Trump. But if we take California out of the mix, we find that Donald Trump received 44,848 more votes than Joe Biden. This indicates that our nation is divided in half even if further vote counting tweaks those numbers. In addition, the state count will hover around the 50-50 division with 24 to 25 states selecting Biden and 25 to 26 states selecting Trump.

But the division in our nation is not just found in numbers, it is found in another word: 'polarization.' There are significant numbers of people on both sides who view the candidate from the other side, along with his supporters, with deep contempt. There are a significant number number of people who view the candidate and his supporters from the other side as posing a dire threat to America.

Many who support Donald Trump not only believed that Joe Biden would bring the downfall of our nation by forcing socialism on us, they see many of Biden's supporters as supporting rioting thugs who want to destroy the history and self-image of our nation. At least that is how the Trump campaign commercials portray them. In fact, one Southern law enforcement officer had to resign because that officer publicly recommended that people show violence to 'Marxist Democrats' because of what they have done with this election. There has been some fighting in the streets between Trump supporters and those who oppose him. And many Trump supporters have been encouraged by Trump to view any result other than his victory to be the result of a rigged election. Because Trump has successfully convinced them that the main stream media is fake news, they have only a pro-Trump echo chamber for their source of information.

On the Biden side of the division, we have the previously mention participants in street fights along with huge street demonstrations celebrating the election victory. The popular late night TV shows continue with their aggressive and hostile parodies of Trump. Many non-conservatives still predict that Trump would have ushered in fascism during his second term--I am one of those people.

 As Trump's team plans more legal actions, Biden is already preparing for his time in the White House. But the national divide is deep with many on both sides harboring suspicions and bitterness of the other. Those suspicions could explode into massive demonstrations and violence with or without a reversal of the election results.

Biden claims that he will unite the nation. But the divisions are too deep for any one person to do that, even if we are talking about the President. The divisions that we have now can only be healed if we the people reach out each other. That is easier said than done by those who supported the losing candidate. And lest those of us who are relieved that Trump was defeated look down on those Trump supporters for not being able to reach out or respond well to others who are reaching out, we should note that it would be impossible for us to practice what we preach if the election results were to be reversed.

The other word that best describes the state of our union at this time is the word 'authoritarian.' Authoritarianism is the other pandemic that has swept the world. As for here, big pockets of Conservatives, Liberals, and Leftists are deeply authoritarian. That authoritarianism has played a very significant role in the political division in our nation. One reason that is so is because what is part and parcel to authoritarianism is holding to a black-white worldview. Viewing the nation as us vs. them, regardless of who us or them are, is a result of holding to such a worldview.

Authoritarianism also makes changing even more difficult than it already is. Changing our minds or ways of thinking is one of the toughest tasks we, especially us older people, can take on. And authoritarianism makes that even more difficult because it makes our thinking more rigid as well as hostile to challenges. 

In addition, authoritarianism is behind the most prevalent examples of identity politics that we see today: those forms are the identity with a given political party and/or ideology. Those who can only vote for a conservative/liberal or Republican/Democrat are as much identifying with those ideologies or political party as any other group identity that exists. And here, authoritarianism takes the form of expecting that the authority of one's own group must be respected. 

In fact, the reluctance to change from the two-party system can be due to authoritarianism because authoritarianism makes changing more difficult. When we submit to adages like 'that is the way we've done things,' we are submitting to the tyranny of tradition.

Now I should point out that I am using the term 'authoritarianism' rather loosely. Rather than referring to how a person rules, I am referring instead to the authoritarian personality types. especially the passive form. Included with the authoritarian personality type is a uncompromising submission to recognized authority figures, hostility to dissent, black-white world view, visions of power dancing in our heads, and so forth. 

For us to really make progress, we can neither be divided nor embrace authoritarianism. For while the former weakens us as a nation, the latter weakens us as individuals. We can't assume that our own group has a monopoly on truth so that our own group has everything to teach and nothing to learn. Nor can we afford to irrationally choose ideologies, political parties, hero candidates, national traditions, or sources of news and information. We must learn from other groups than our own and we must use logic and  objectively arrive at facts if we are to break away from the current state our nation is in. In reality, our survival depends on us breaking away from our current state.