In the midst of the chaotic atmosphere of the presidential election, I write this as an exercise for mental sanity.
I must confess, that for this column, I tried writing about a variety of topics before finding my focus. It is futile to try following the U.S. political narrative, that everyday convinces me it is designed to perturb and alienate society, so as to leave politicians free to “do politics,” while we focus instead on being productive within the economic system they represent.
We find ourselves in the middle of an arguing and shouting match by all, for all, similar to the arguments between parents that many of us heard as children. This feeling becomes so much that we reach the feeling that the world is about to collapse, that the next person in the presidential chair could resolve all or ruin all, and it is not at all like that. The United States and the world will not change in a day, one person cannot make a difference, unless that person is you.
On July 28, I had the opportunity to pass by the place where I met Bernie Sanders, which seemed naked without the multitudes of people cheering his name, sharing small talk and being inspired to dream. Later, I obliged myself to watching his speech at the Democratic National Convention as he endorsed Hillary Clinton, and it made me cry. Primarily because this last strand of hope, the campaign that gave some sense to this political circus, had officially ended.
Something I have learned in my short time analyzing American politics—and that of other countries—is that the political right feeds itself on fear and the left, on hope. The right defends conservative values (it doesn’t like change) and the left likes to dream for a different world.
Another characteristic of the right is that it organizes itself much easier than the left and that its fundamental objectives are easy to define: profitability and gains. What does it matter if we raze a forest, destroy a reef, invade one country or more, as long as the profits of the next cycle remain stable, the stock owners are satisfied and we can remain united.
The left, in contrast, wants health, education, work, food independence and respect for those on the margins.
But on this occasion the narrative is different—on one side there is a person, Hillary Clinton, whom many don’t trust. The middle- and working-class voters she claims to represent don’t believe she has integrity, and it is difficult to defend her after Wikileaks released documents demonstrating that officials from the Democratic Party worked to thwart the Sanders campaign. The impact of the leak was such that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned two days before the start of the national convention.
On the other side, Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which we could see in all of its splendor during its national convention, are trying to take this election with screaming and cowboy hats, with nationalist slogans and a deep division between “real Americans” and the rest of the country. For them, the United States is a house infested with rats—this writer is one of them—and the only solution is burn down the house so that the rats can flee and the “real Americans” can happily conserve the ashes. There is no doubt that when your only tool is a hammer, all your problems begin to appear as nails.
So, burn the house down or give the keys to someone who will steal the furniture. What would you decide?
What shocked me enormously however, was seeing Sanders followers attack Clinton the way Republicans have in their campaigns of defamation and hate. They transformed all the hope felt for Sanders into hatred and insults that are frankly, ridiculous. Is it that society is so desperate that a middle school bully such as Trump can take our dignity away? An analysis in part by Michael Moore shows that many people will vote for Trump, not in sympathy but in desperation, to send a cutting message to the American political system: “F— you!”
We need to develop abilities to understand the world and have a critical conscience, even though in this time of chaos, it appears difficult.
This is a political moment where we must conserve the calm and not allow ourselves to become fearful due to the narrative of the media. We need to realize that if we want something to change, we need to find ourselves again as a society, with humility, and rebuild from the base. Electoral politics can only function if citizens allow and that is why the political revolution is only beginning.