The Collective Elephant in the Room

As the 2024 Presidential election results indicate that Donald Trump will yet again lead our nation for 4 years, I find myself reflecting on the collective elephant in the room: political views. No one really talks about their political views, unless they are staunch supporters of either side of the spectrum. The people who have moderate, rational thoughts about the way our country should be run are not likely to attempt a conversation with those who loudly argue for their candidate. I, for example, have rational questions about how self-proclaimed Christians can get behind a candidate who is so proudly immoral and disgustingly misogynistic. But oh my! If I were ask any of those questions, I'd be in the hot seat, peppered with questions like, "If Kamala is so great, why didn't she fix this country in the 3.5 years she's been vice president, huh?" A question about one candidate is viewed as a vote for the other. Shouldn't we be questioning all our candidates? Shouldn't we have impossibly high standards for the highest office in our land?

We can no longer have conversations in this country; we only yell to those who will yell back their agreement. We aren't able to ask questions like, "Why does no one call him 'Donald,' but everyone calls her 'Kamala'?" or  "Do Democrats really think we should do abortions at birth?" or "Why do we seem so afraid of having a woman in charge?" or  "Are we really just handing out money to foreign countries and not helping our own?" or "Why are we OK with a leader who is racist and divides the country instead of bringing us together?" or "Are we really so polarized in this country, and why do we allow our political candidates to tell us we are?"

But none of these questions (and many more I haven't listed) won't be raised by moderate, rational people, sometimes called the purple majority, because we don't want to be the target of someone's outrage. Instead, we will all just joke, "Thank God those texts and calls about voting have stopped!" and go on about our lives. 

Another significant reason that some don't speak about politics is that unless you devote your entire life to researching policy and watching CSPAN, politics are intentionally complicated and intimidating to the average person. Project 2025 has been tossed around as a Republican manifesto to destroy America -- did you read the 900-page document to see what it actually says? Me either. Laws that finally make it to the top for approval or rejection are laden with unrelated deals that had to be made along the way to advance the legislation. Every politician owes someone else a favor or two. The waters are beyond murky -- they are downright turbid. 

I don't know the answer. I do know I'm going to be wondering what the people I interact with really think about my rights as a woman and a leader over the next four years. But I sure as hell won't be saying anything out loud. And honestly, that's just sad. 




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