O
ver
Winter
Break,
I spent a few hours
researching
possible
careers
in
journalism.
Columnist for The New York
Times, reporter for The Wall
Street
Journal,
fact-checker
for The Washington Post — I
skipped past examining the
third.
A
career
analyzing
politicians
and
trying
to
decipher the truths from the
lies sounds like torture. It’s
not just speechwriters fudging
the
numbers
or
candidates
exaggerating
anecdotes
anymore: the lies are bigger,
and so are the consequences.
How
can
one
reconcile
election denial with the facts?
What additional context can one
give to the claim that women
aren’t the only ones giving
birth? The truth is a noble,
difficult pursuit. The truth is a
responsibility. One that few will
bear, least of all those in power.
Both parties have embraced
their own unique fictions, more
encompassing than any single
false
statement
or
extreme
issue.
Our
partisan
divide
has grown, and two separate
realities have emerged, each
lived in by their respective
sides of the political aisle.
Former
President
Donald
Trump (just President Trump,
to 40 percent of the country)
has announced yet another
bid for the Oval Office. His
declaration of victory in 2020
was more than just deception:
it was a cancer, with tumors
manifesting
themselves
as
rioters storming the Capitol
Building
and
armed
thugs
posted up next to ballot drop
boxes in Arizona.
And yet, most Americans did
not embrace Trump’s lie, or the
other crazy policies adopted by
his ideological successors.
Roe v. Wade was overturned,
and the country read tragic
stories of teen pregnancies
caused by rape and reckoned
with the proposed laws that
would
see
them
forcibly
brought to term. Meanwhile,
many Republicans, such as
Tudor Dixon, rallied behind
no-exceptions abortion — based
on the lie that it is morally right
and necessary for a victim of
a brutal sex crime to have her
assailant’s baby.
Any reasonable doubt about
climate change has been put
to rest by concrete scientific
consensus, but congressional
Republicans refuse to act, and
some even refute the evidence
entirely. Lingering questions
about the role of guns in mass
violence have been answered
by a series of never-ending
shootings, and yet Republicans
still
blame
mental
illness.
Mental illness can’t open fire
on a crowd of bystanders.
Then the midterms came.
The political center said “no”
to
falsehood.
Democrats
performed
shockingly
well,
holding the Senate and nearly
holding the House. But this left
turn merely substituted one
false narrative with another,
and Americans know it. Biden’s
low approval rating and the
success of more mainstream
Republican
candidates
in
typically blue districts, such
as
Mike
Lawler’s
victory
over U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick
Maloney, D-N.Y., the chair of
the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, in New
York’s Hudson Valley race, are
indicative of a nation disgusted
with both parties.
LSA
freshman
Julian
Hernandez
explained
his
thoughts to The Daily: “I feel
like in some cases such as
economic policies and foreign
affairs, there is a ‘black and
white’ between the right thing
and the wrong thing to do.
However, with other issues such
as abortion and (its) morality,
I find the increasingly radical
stances of each party deeply
troubling.” On many of the most
important
issues,
especially
democratic and cultural issues,
the two parties have embraced
opposing extremes, and they
pay the price with moderate
voters.
In key swing states, Trump’s
handpicked
screwballs
lost
seats for Republicans because
most Americans wanted to put
2020 behind them. Despite
liberals’ unpopular positions on
crime and radical positions on
gender theory, the anticipated
Red Wave evaporated because
Trump showed independents
an even scarier reality.
“Democracy cannot survive
when one side believes there
are only two outcomes to an
election: either they win or they
were cheated. And that’s where
MAGA Republicans are today.”
President Joe Biden said in a
speech.
Democrats
ordained
themselves
the
party
of
democracy. They were playing
make-believe.
MAGA Republicans are not
the only ones to lose without
grace. Jan. 6, 2017, while less
climactic and damaging than
Jan. 6, 2021, saw objections to
the certification of more states’
presidential votes by House
Democrats
than
by
House
Republicans on the day of the
insurrection four years later.
Trump’s defeat made election
denial a larger menace, but it
did not invent the dangerous
mentality from scratch.
In 2022, Democrats made the
threat to democracy a top issue.
Publicly railing against the Big
Lie, they privately fueled its
growth by supporting Trump-
endorsed
election
deniers
in the primaries, hoping to
face weaker candidates in the
general. Trump’s crony John
Gibbs
won
the
Republican
primary
in
Michigan’s
3rd
congressional
district
after
liberals
spent
$400,000
advertising
his
highly
conservative beliefs.
In places where Democrats
already had power or recently
took it by propping up far-right
maniacs, they govern from
their own reality.
Crime rises, and they fight
to defund the police. The
city of Portland gutted their
police budget by $15 million
and suffered a 65% increase
in homicides. Even Mayor Ted
Wheeler, a Democrat, conceded
that as a result of the killing,
“many Portlanders no longer
feel safe.” But the more typical
liberal response has been to
downplay the problem.
In
the
recent
Maternal
Health Guidance, the Biden
administration has removed
the word “mother,” using the
term “birthing people” instead.
The unsettled gender debate
distracts from the pressing
matter of guaranteeing women
better pre- and post-natal care.
The debate around reproductive
rights is already volatile, and
radical new components limit
the
potential
for
positive
motion.
Most
Americans
rightfully support protections
for transgender people. Many
are weary about the speed of
change. Sudden cultural shifts
threaten to alienate all but
the most progressive voters
and require more substantive
thought. Altering our language
and historical understanding of
pregnancy are dramatic steps
that must be taken seriously.
Republicans and Democrats
alike take nothing seriously.
On
democracy,
abortion,
climate, crime, etc., if fiction
is
convenient,
then
fiction
becomes
policy.
Discussion
is an exhausting, upsetting
endeavor, but the alternative is
silence.
Fiction and silence are bad
for democracy. Finding the
truth is hardest when passions
are high, but at no other time
is it so important. Americans
want reality, and the results of
the midterm elections reveal a
nation that is not yet ready to
abandon it.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
8 — Wednesday, January 11, 2023
JACK BRADY
Opinion Columnist
The land of opposing fictions
Opinion
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