More Questions than Answers: The Liminality of U.S. Elections
Plus a Mission Statement
There is tension rising in my body—I can feel it gripping my chest, clenching my stomach. This is not the first time I’ve been anxious leading up to U.S. elections; when Reagan was running, I was not even old enough to vote. Now the stakes are mountains higher (though I still trace the current precipice back to Reagan). While Trump was in office, I experienced an almost daily assault on my senses; as a woman and a survivor, it involved regularly managing re-stimulated trauma. Based on how this elected official talked about and treated women, his role in overturning Roe v.s. Wade, and who he picked for the Supreme Court (Brett Kavanaugh, also accused of sexual misconduct and confirmed by the U.S. Senate), I increasingly experienced a sense of invisibility and not even existing in my own country.
Friends in Europe repeatedly ask me: How can polls be so close? How can so many be supporting a man who denied the results of the last election, continues to make things up (immigrants eating pets!), is a convicted felon, and increasingly incoherent when speaking (and not provided a medical report about his physical and mental health)? They also ask me about the electoral college. Why does the U.S, (which so prides itself on democracy) have a system where, in effect, a handful of states determines the most important office for the entire country? More, if there are those who believe the government is manipulating the weather (the ultimate climate change denier-conspiracy theory), then all hope is lost. It’s just too bizarre.
There are historical reasons for the electoral college; yet from the start, it’s been racist and never functioned as intended. In 1970, it was nearly abolished. Tim Walz recently suggested abolishing it too but quickly backpedaled; Harris has floated the idea and most Americans prefer a popular vote. I think getting rid of the electoral college and addressing voter suppression and gerrymandering would go a long way towards boosting voter turnout in the U.S. Making election day a national holiday and requiring states to offer early voting would help too. While turn out has been higher in recent years, in the U.S. usually only about 50% of those eligible vote.
There are complex reasons why so many Americans are supporting a candidate who has publicly stated that he intends to be a dictator (at least for a day), use the presidency for personal vengeance, not accept the results if he loses again, and introduce tariffs that will economically hurt the vast majority of Americans. A group of ten top retired military officials signed a letter stating that Trump is “a danger to our national security and democracy.” The Doomsday Clock tracks how close we are globally to catastrophic nuclear war; it currently is at ninety seconds to midnight. The Environmental Doomsday Clock is not far off.
The U.S. has profound influence on the rest of the world—politically, economically and environmentally. While U.S. citizens will elect the next president, their choice will determine what happens to the whole planet.
As a grad student studying critical and narrative theory, post-modernism—breaking down and challenging the dominant discourse—was compelling. As a fat, queer woman, I definitely saw narratives that needed dismantling. But now post-modernism has gone to a dark, co-opted place: thanks in part to the internet (which at first also seemed empowering), people can slide down a rabbit hole of myopic (mis) information. Every narrative is suspect. Often we don’t know the source of the fake “fake” news (a news service funded by the Russian government?). It’s become fashionable to be cynical about democracy, from both sides of the political spectrum. Yet how much of our thinking (and despair) about democracy itself has been influenced by misinformation intentionally fabricated, including now by A.I, to create a sense of chaos and distrust? The profit-driven algorithms of the internet means we are all—unless we make a concerted effort to break free of it—living in echo chambers.
Reality is increasingly Orwellian. In this surreal, dystopian world, J.D. Vance acknowledges that the pet-eating story is made up but justifies because it addresses, he says, America’s pain; meanwhile, the fabrication itself leads to real suffering. The man who bragged about pussy grabbing, says he’s here to protect women. (Try telling that to the family of Amber Thurman.) Trump called Biden too old and Harris, “mentally impaired,” while he will now be the oldest president in office if elected and is increasingly incoherent. It’s all crazy-making, especially when his followers talk about “fake news.” As Orwell said in 1984, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” It’s a topsy-turvy, trína chéile (“confused”) house of mirrors.
I find my thoughts repeatedly returning to Yeats’ “The Second Coming:”
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
It gives me some solace to know that Yeats had similar thoughts and fears—the world also tumbling apart during his life time. But if Fintan O’Toole’s Yeats Test is accurate, we truly are in trouble now. I keep thinking it can’t get any worse—and it does.
Looking for light in this darkness, I had thought that living though Trump (and during COVID) would be worth it to see the first woman president of the United States. Maybe this is what it would take to see a woman elected: a man running who’s completely unfit for the job. Hilary Clinton was just unpopular—and got derailed by the FBI. But now I fear that misogyny is so persistent in the U.S. that people rather have a strongman than a woman in the Situation Room. Obama recently expressed my worst fears. Yet it’s not just black men or even men—I suspect even some women (despite overall support for Harris) also doubt that the “most powerful nation in the world” can or should be led by a woman. Instead, we will get a dictator.
There are are of course other reasons besides misogyny, the internet and manipulation by foreign interests. Some of my friends have lost faith in the whole system; they no longer want to participate in a government that they consider corrupt, regardless of who’s leading it. They believe the whole system needs to come down and the sooner it implodes on itself, the better. There are other voters eager for change and uncertain about who will best bring it: Harris, who would be in the role of President for the first time, or Trump, who presents himself as anti-establishment. There are other interests: activists and those of Palestinian descent who are angry with Biden’s handling of the Middle East and transferring that anger to Harris; Christian Nationalists and other conservative Christians who hold their nose while voting for Trump because they find him offensive but like his platform, especially around abortion. They consider it a necessary evil to vote for a man hawking $60 Bibles (made in China) who rarely attends church himself.
The U.S. is a huge country —the width of a continent with more than three hundred million people. Watching the campaigns, you can see the demographics at play: swing states of course being wooed but also the Black vote, the Latino vote, the youth vote, the southern vote, suburban, trade unionists, etc. Beyond demographics, there are those supporting Trump simply because it suits their personal interests, especially those in the 1% (or higher). Elon Musk is a poster child for this—one of Trump’s biggest donors and using X as a bullhorn for Trump’s campaign, he has already changed Trump’s positions and could be given a role in Trump’s cabinet. Musk is literally buying power. His main objective: to reduce government regulations.
More, research is showing that it’s not economically disadvantaged white people (and white men in particular) supporting Trump. Rather, it’s the “elite” (the more well do do) in disadvantaged areas who are experiencing shame and a loss of local pride as they see their areas impacted by economic decline and increased drug use:
“For Roger Ford, a KY-5 entrepreneur and Republican activist who serves as Hochschild’s exemplar of Trump’s “locally rich” base, Trump helps resolve those emotions by offering someone to blame. Ford may not be suffering personally, but his region is — and Trump’s rage at liberal coastal elites helps him locate a villain outside of his own community.” —Trump’s biggest fans aren’t who you think
For those moving up the social and economic ladder, to see your regional area and culture in decline I imagine can be disheartening, frustrating and even scary. People in these areas also have a need to be seen and to trust that they matter. When human beings lose a sense of empowerment and agency—and despair that their needs matter and can be met—they become easier to manipulate with fear and misinformation.
The irony for me is that it’s Democratic policies that have most made a difference for these areas, most recently the infrastructure bill. Yet clearly more needs to be done to support rural areas in the U.S. Trump was clearly attempting to speak to these concerns in making J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, his VP candidate. But Vance is now worth between $4 and $11 million. Tech investor Peter Thiel invested $15 million in Vance’s Sentate campaign.
Is beag an splanc a lasann tine.
“Even the smallest spark can light the greatest fire.” — Irish proverb
Usually in The Liminal I write about social linguistics—how the Irish language gives insights about indigenous Irish culture and with that hope about what’s possible for us and the world. If we lived cooperatively and (mostly) peacefully before, surely we can do it again; we just need to remember how through what I call eolas sean-nua, “old-new knowledge.” That knowledge can, I hope, inspire and spark change. At minimum, it can keep us going—hanging onto a thread of hope and light as we fumble through these dark times.
Ultimately, I write about what’s on my mind. I write for myself: a way to get clear about my own thoughts—finding the path through the woods, by laying ideas out, bread crumbs on a page. I hope of course it interests and benefits others too. I also long for community and companionship: once you have that path through the woods, a warm fire to sit around with others. But this is what makes writing so scary, vulnerable and daring. I never really know until it’s out there in the world just how it will sit with others. So each time I take a leap.
Beauty may seem a luxury, especially if, like many in the world right now, you are struggling (as in Gaza and Sudan) to just stay alive. But I don’t think beauty is to be underestimated. We humans find a way to find it, in the simplest ways even in the most complex times. Beauty gives a sense of meaning and order and solace; something bigger than ourselves. We need it, maybe even more so, during times of confusion, fear and uncertainity. I hope The Liminal, even in this more political edition, gives you that.
And I hope if you are a U.S. citizen, that you will vote. In many states, voting has started already. An té nach gcuireann san earrach, ní bhainfidh sé san fhómhar. “If you don’t sow in spring, you will not reap in the autumn.”
Slán go fóill, by for now,
Dian, i mBaile Atha Cliath (in Dublin)
Is aoibhinn liom é seo. Trína chéile - cinnte! Agus is aoibhinn liom "The Second Coming." Is é an dán is fearr liom. Scríobh tú alt iontach!
An scríobhann do chat teachtaireachtaí? Scríobhann Mango teachtaireachtaí uaireanta. Ritheann sé ar mo mhéarchlár. :)
Suimiúil..interesting...