I've been surprised by a lot of the values that have been put aside for the elections recently, especially when so many of them were yelled about so loudly in the past few elections (not limited to one side but from my perspective one side does seem more severe).
It's also been really interesting to watch a bunch of formerly non partisan values become polarizing like rule of law, integrity, corruption, decorum, body autonomy, the constitution, the national debt, global alliances, sexual assault, "family values", and "the American Dream" tm.
There has always been this (baffling, to me) concept that most folks vote for a candidate "while holding their nose" but it seems like the proportions are getting wildly out of whack. The pile of bad smells grows tall and the exchange rate seems quite bad.
The 2020s have taught me a lot about the reality of civics and what it looks like to try to govern a giant group of strangers.
I'm grateful to have lived in the US during a period of stability and safety and (some) shared values. My optimism for retaining that and preventing decline, however, is running very dry.
It's also been really interesting to watch a bunch of formerly non partisan values become polarizing like rule of law, integrity, corruption, decorum, body autonomy, the constitution, the national debt, global alliances, sexual assault, "family values", and "the American Dream" tm.
There has always been this (baffling, to me) concept that most folks vote for a candidate "while holding their nose" but it seems like the proportions are getting wildly out of whack. The pile of bad smells grows tall and the exchange rate seems quite bad.
The 2020s have taught me a lot about the reality of civics and what it looks like to try to govern a giant group of strangers.
I'm grateful to have lived in the US during a period of stability and safety and (some) shared values. My optimism for retaining that and preventing decline, however, is running very dry.