Tis The Year For Two Christmases

Every four years, we have Christmas twice a year. In fact, every four years we have Christmas on consecutive months. For each of those Christmases, we are presented with a portrayal of mythical characters who are said to bring us great joy by the gifts they will give us. These mythical characters appeal to children regardless of their actual ages. And for those Christmases, the heightened expectations for the coming of each of those mythical characters lasts for around a few months at the most as the gifts they promise rarely meet our expectations.

When we think about how those running for office appeal to us, Election Day becomes another Christmas because the candidates talk to us as if we're children. They seem to believe that all they have to do is to promise us the stars while painting their opponents as  a real life Grinch using language that an elementary school student could understand. And the reason why they do that is because it works--and that is on each one of us. Even if there are individuals who dislike such appeals, it works to varying degrees on most of us. 

In addition, because we Americans have, for the most part, refused to show that we are the home of the brave by refusing to vote for third party candidates, we end up with a choice between voting for the them candidate or the not them candidate where the best qualification of each candidate is that they are not like their opponent. And since the candidates from each major political party only have to show that they are not like the other candidate, the standards met by our 2 major Presidential nominees have been consistently dropping with each election.

And so we are constantly bombarded by political ads that show the candidates from the 2 major political parties speaking before adoring crowds. These crowds are so amorous one would think that these candidates are real life, messianic figures. But in reality, the candidates from both major political parties are merely playing the role of Santa Clause. And because we don't want to pay any more attention to the politics of our democracy than we absolutely have to, that suits us fine. 

Of course there are additional reasons why we get the political candidates that we get. It is because our politicians reflect us, the people whom they seek to serve, exploit, and/or rule over. George Carlin said as much when he said that selfish, ignorant voters elect selfish, ignorant public officials. And so if we want better candidates, we, as a society, need to curb our selfishness and work at becoming more educated and informed. Or as Martin Luther King Jr said, that we need to change from caring more about gadgets, profit motives, and property rights to carrying more about people. But good luck with that in a Consumer Society where, as King warned us against, we look to gain too much personal significance from our salaries and material goods than by how much we have helped those in need and have, in positive ways, influenced society.

One other note should be sounded here. While the Democrats campaign as being vanguards for those in the Middle Class rather than empowering workers and those in the lower economic classes, the Trumpublicans campaign on narrow self-interests and celebrating the lack of self-restraint. Our choice continues to be how I have described it before in at least one other time, that the working, not necessarily campaign, agendas of both political parties are putting us on a track to self-destruction. The difference between the two major political parties is that the Dems are acting like a local train while the Repubs are acting like an express train. And so the real difference between the two major political parties is which one will cause us to self-destruct sooner than the other.