“The Lesser of Two Evils” Has Very Different Outcomes
During critical times, people aren’t fighting for progress but against regression.
When the tipping point is reached, decades of previous progress can be wiped out. It takes years to recover from the onslaught of fascism and dictators. When fascists rule, time stops.
Every dream that we have is halted indefinitely and the things we once enjoyed are lost.
That tipping point is currently threatening much of the western world. Italy, Hungary and Poland have already tipped so far to the right that they bear keeping an eye on. Spain, France, and England are threatened by parties pushing the equivalent to right-wing ideologies.
We can easily lose sight of the world we live in and become focused on our own country. But that’s a narrow view of a bigger problem. The shift that starts in one location can spread throughout the world. We are not alone on this planet.
A little historical perspective is also helpful.
I can feel the angst, the disapproval. I can hear the grumblings and discontent. I notice the uptick in essays written by democrats critical of the democratic party, Biden, their policies, and lack of progress. I feel your pain. I hear the desperation in your voices.
I’m effected by your anger and rash statements as well.
Nowhere do I hear a plan or a solution, however. These are precarious times. The tipping point is near. Please, proceed not just with caution but also with a deep understanding of what’s at stake.
Just like when Hilary Clinton was running for president, some democrats are beginning to slip back into their traditional roles of pointing fingers at one another, expressing their dissatisfaction with their own party.
The Republicans appreciate your efforts. They’re batting a thousand with their attacks on democrats but they still welcome any help that comes their way.
I think I’ve counted at least a half dozen recent articles written by democrats who were criticizing democrats. They all tended to compare the two political parties by using a measuring stick that produced evidence that the ideologies of the two parties were similar in scope and the efforts to reach liberal goals unimpressive.
Their conclusion was that both parties were ineffective at the least and evil at the worst. Republicans and democrats were simply two sides to a corrupt coin. Some of what these writers were ranting about was true and discouraging, I’ll freely admit.
Were there any suggestions in these articles as to how best to proceed when the next election comes round? Did I miss something? Because these are precarious times, my friends. History can and most often will repeat itself.
Let me add that I thought long and hard about providing links to several articles written in this style by a few very popular writers with a lot more followers than me, but ended up deciding not to go that route. I have no desire to trigger a free for all between writers on Medium. I really don’t want to debate this issue. I merely wanted to share a historical perspective that I think is very relevant to what’s happening in America today.
Historically, the lesser of two evils is often a drastically different level of evil, not just in America but across the world.
The most detrimental political party is always the party that is able to unite.
Let me repeat that.
The most detrimental political party is always the party that is able to unite.
Republicans excel at that. They rally around a few issues and then vote republican. They rarely write essays trashing their own leaders. They move swiftly when power falls into their hands and without the need for justification.
Dems not so much. Democrats are the party of a thousand issues from veganism to climate change and they tend to expect 100% fulfillment.
If not, they start to threaten to leave the party, to not vote, or to vote third party. Which always sounds like they’re willing to sabotage the next election as a matter of conscience.
I doubt most do it, but they undermine the need for unity in the face of a much more virulent party.
Republicans understand the idea of unification without questions. Let’s face it. Republicans aren’t about being fiscally conservative any longer or even the notion of small government. They have become the party of GOD. They’ll settle for privatizing EVERYTHING, even their own social security, as long as they can prevent abortions while carrying a permit-less gun and keep the LBGTQ crowd away from their kids.
It sounds ridiculous to a genuine Democrat but it works.
It’s astounding how much can be accomplished when you throw in a little gerrymandering and extreme attention to reducing voting rights with a generous level of unification. And, if the unification is around GOD, the Bible, guns and abortion, the fervor becomes radicalized very quickly.
There’s little more terrifying than the unification of Christians on a mission with a gun in tow.
Make no mistake about it. These fanatics are making progress. They are relentless and unscrupulous. They are meticulously destroying the unprecedented social progress made in the last 150 years.
Maybe it’s time for a little history lesson … There’s more than one, but let’s take a look at Spain for a shining example.
Francisco Franco became the dictator of Spain largely because all the opposing parties couldn’t unite. At critical times, that’s a dangerous game to play. There were many Spaniards who opposed Franco. They just couldn’t come up with a plan — together.
They agreed that a dictator was the last thing they needed, but there were too many other things that they couldn’t agree upon.
So, they couldn’t successfully unite and, of course, the rest is history. Franco’s party was much more cohesive and centered upon their goals. What did his party focus upon.
The consistent points in Franco’s ideology (termed Francoism) included authoritarianism, nationalism, national Catholicism, militarism, conservatism, anti-communism, and anti-liberalism.
Sound familiar?
From roughly 1939 to 1975, until Franco passed away, Spain was under his rule. Not only did the different political groups who opposed Franco end up with a dictator but they made no gains with their personal agendas for the next 35 years. Furthermore, they lost many rights and privileges that they’d shared prior to this critical time in history.
By the way, the United States helped to put the last nail in Spain’s coffin by signing a pact with Franco allowing us to use air space and naval spaces in Spain. It was an exchange that symbolized an implied moral backing of Franco as a leader.
Why do I mention Franco?
Well, I’ve been wintering in Spain for the last 16 years. When I understood their recent past a little better, it became apparent to me that there was a lesson to be learned from their mistakes. Unfortunately, the VOX party is gaining power in Spain, a regressive party that has some of the same goals as our republican party. Ugh! People are stupid.
I suspect our brains are too muddled to make good decisions most of the time or to learn from past mistakes.
Ok, that’s the end of my history lesson …
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a patriotic bone in my body. I’ve lived all over the world and what I’ve seen thus far is this. Wherever there are people, there are problems. When anyone asks me where I’d prefer to live, I tell them on another planet. The history of this one doesn’t promise a very bright future.
I’m deeply disappointed in America, but I’m a pragmatist.
I see no value in just handing a win to the party of fascists. I will settle for 70% of what I want if the alternative would be getting 0% of what I want. So, before I throw the game, I’d love to know what the plan is …
Otherwise, I’m going with the lesser of two evils until something better comes along.
It makes no sense to channel my anger toward the kind of devisiveness that helped to get us Trump. Within four years, we regressed dramatically as a nation. It was the most important election of my lifetime thus far. We still haven’t managed to undo the damage done. But what’s even more disturbing is that Trump unleashed something that I had never before experienced in my 71 years on this planet.
He gave us permission to name call, spew hate, verbally assault and terrorize one another. Why?
Because we had a man occupying the highest seat for four years who modeled that kind of behavior. He dared to do it and the more he did it the easier it became for everyone else to do it, too. That kind of wacko behavior has been normalized. It no longer shocks anyone. We may still be threatening to beat our kid’s asses when they talk back to us, but there’s nothing stopping adults from showing their asses in public.
Socially, it’s now a different world.
If a republican wins the next election, they’ll be a lot smarter and more experienced than Trump, but they’ll also use Trump’s playbook whenever it benefits the party’s goals. They’ll be far more dangerous.
Trump has proven just how far they can push the envelope.
Here’s a link to an essay I wrote a while back about the grand social experiment that was perpetuated upon Americans by the republican party through a surprise victory. Trump was unmanageable even by his own party. They never expected him to win the nomination in the first place.
These are critical times. We are teetering on the edge, barely hanging on to the progress made in the last century and unable to take but a very few steps forward. If we fail to hang on to what little we still have, we could lose it all for years to come. All of it. Not just us. The entire western world.
Regression is easier than progress. It almost has a life force of its own, like an avalanche.
Show me a plan. Something other than threatening to not vote, voting third party, or voting for the opposing side. If you don’t have a way of changing the status quo then step away from the wreck. Because the pieces will need to be handled carefully or else the whole thing could explode in our faces. Then, we’ll look back on what was and wish for days gone by when things weren’t perfect but at least better.
It makes no sense to give up the progress made in the last century, the most progressive era in history, because we haven’t found a way yet to take the next steps forward.
We must resist the urge to burn everything to the ground, because I guarantee you, we’ll deeply regret it later. Many Spaniards did, I’m sure.
Please don’t forget that during critical times, people aren’t fighting for progress but against regression.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
