Election Result follow up

The day after an election is often spent by both sides reflecting on what they did correctly or incorrectly. Winners and losers assess what happened. Unfortunately, what has been observed over the last couple of Presidential election cycles is that one side isn’t quite getting that the electorate is changing. Demographically, and socially, voters are just more progressive. Plus, they like to rely on the facts they observe around them, vs just listening blindly to one media source. I was going to write up something about that. And then, this was posted:

Evolution Is A Thing – courtesy of the opening segment of Rachel Maddow’s show last night. A beautiful list of FACTS and TRUTH and REALITY that even two days after the election, many in the GOP (specifically it’s pundits on TV) just do not seem to grasp. The script then goes on to explain why this is bad, and why it happens:

In other words, I don’t need to write anything – it was all laid out perfectly by the writers at TRMS and delivered perfectly by Rachel.

I’m sure the folks like the guy who wrote that facebook comment in my last post wishing that he had a POTUS who saluted the flag are living inside their own bubble.

I’m sure my friend – who broke my heart when she stated that she believes that Obama’s second term will result in foreign enemies attacking us and war right here on our own soil – is living in some sort of dark feedback loop bubble.

I wonder sometimes if fear is not the force behind all this. Is there some part of people’s minds that gets so awash in fear that it becomes irrational, that dominates your ability to reason and observe reality?

I know I saw that on the left during the Bush years. Folks who just went off the deep end and lapped up any tidbit of nonsensical information fed to them as long as it supported their narrative of Bush as a manically evil dictator.

The difference is that those fearful lefties had to go digging for that feedback loop in dark corners of the internet. There were no radio shows. No TV stations that they could plug into and wallow in 24/7. They were pushed aside by folks like me and anyone serious minded and actually involved in Democratic politics. To this day there are some on the left who I blocked, unfriended, and stopped reading their blog posts because they have lost touch with reality when it comes to politics.

It’s a LOT easier to find sources of blood flow for conservative fear junkies. And it seems like many of what I would label “fringe” opinions are given larger platforms and even embraced by the party as a whole.

I really hope that Rachel is right and that this second Presidential defeat for the GOP results in a crack in their conservative media vacuum. I really do. Because the country IS stronger when both parties are strong.

And that requires relying on facts. And science. And math.

And letting go of irrational fears. Because living in fear is not living.