This is what happens when a nation votes against someone rather than for someone. In the case of the United States following this year’s election, the president will be a lame duck with a Senate dominated by Republicans. That’s a statement of relativity although there already is some evidence that Joe Biden may turn out to be a lame president in absolute terms — basically a mere compromise to another four years of Donald Trump and one propped up by his association with the former popular president Barack Obama. Indeed, even his candidacy attracted only tentative support from his own Democrat camp.
If Biden is president because of all that, his term will be an interesting one as he will have to earn the trust of almost half of the American electorate who voted for Trump and a sizeable chunk of the electorate who voted for him only because he was the lesser evil. That’s at least 70 percent of the American electorate plus a hostile Senate.
To begin with, it is hard to win over conservatives because their ideologies are built around deeply-ingrained aspects of human nature — fear and hate of and for the different, solidarity with people who are like us in belief and appearance, aggression when personal interests are threatened. Liberalism, as such, inherently counts on modern intellect to overcome those basic instincts. It is an uphill battle though because liberals are up against thousands of years of conservative human civilisation whereas many of today’s “woke” ideals enjoy only a century of ascendancy (at best).
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The important thing therefore is to engage rather than demonise. Unfortunately for most liberal camps, their ideology of “inclusiveness” had turned hypocritical and judgmental, morphing into an extremist “woke” brand known for its notorious “cancel culture”. This is the lesson the Democrats and other liberal “movements” that are facing popular conservative opponents need to take heed of. It is one thing to demonise another’s belief systems but to do so and shut the door to any further challenge only drives the conversation underground. This underground conversation the liberals and their extremist “woke” cliques have lost sight of is what is likely behind the “surprising” electoral fight the Trump camp managed to put up in these elections. The fact is, Americans still have such conversations around what they really think and believe in amongst themselves over beers and burgers in their backyards — thinking and believing that is masked by a politically-correct face one needs to wear at the workplace and in front of “polite” company.
In the spirit of free speech in this “free market of ideas” we hold sacred, both camps are well within their rights to “demonise” the other as they see fit. However, liberal wokedom have to shake their unproductive demonise-then-block-and-cancel habit. That’s just being cowardly and dishonest. If you just have to demonise then do so, but leave the forum open for people to challenge your assertions point-by-point.
If wokedom think they have “won” this battle, they’re in for yet even more surprises and these are surprises that they themselves conceal from the little echo chambers they prefer to inhabit. The real world remains stark and cruel. Human nature is not the rosy thing idealists and hipster snowflakes would like it to be. The liberal agenda is still viable but to push it forward requires an intelligent regard for the reality of what it means to be human — that we all, at the cores of our beings, remain the same bunch of chimps who compete for dominance within our tribes, routinely signal fitness and superiority, ostracise and even banish deviants, and remain responsive to physical punishment and reward. The way forward for liberalism is to embrace our biological humanity and apply an honest intellect to suppressing the aspects of it we want to mitigate in order to achieve the idealised humanity we aspire to.
The woke community are on point styling Trump as a vestige of the reptilian complex that competes for a voice in our minds. In doing so, they inadvertently highlight the point they routinely miss. We need to acknowledge that this part of humanity still exists and cannot be simply willed away by “cancelling” it.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The counting of votes in the U.S. election is not yet over…If Trump will win in Arizona…it is over for Joe Biden… Trump won : Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Florida…big states…
I am neither a liberal or conservative…I am a centrist, and an independent voter…not favoring any party candidate.
There are frauds in the “mail in ballots system”…some people who died or moved voted…fictitious voters voted, missing people also voted..Many people voted many times, with different names… Maybe, they hired , Andres Bautista, who is a TNT in America. …Bautista is an expert in : Cheating, HOCUS PCOS and SMARTSWITIK…
So, the U.S. Presidential election in not yet determined and over…It may end up in higher Courts .
“Natuto ang mga kano sa mga Pilipino ” !
Cheating in election is a better option to win, since election dispute will take forever to prove any cheating.
@wanderer:
The Bong Bong Marcos, and the Lugaw Robredo case is a good example. We have lost our moral compass , already. The COMELEC, the Supreme Court, and other government institutions are full of crooks… Money and Power are our God ; and righteousness is no longer there. Even, the churches, that teaches religions are supporters, of the commies – a Godless ideology…
When will we ever learn !
You mean there’s no good candidate? I guess that’s what happens in a $ oriented society. Everybody’s out for themselves that there’s no real leadership.
I believe, Joe Biden hired , Andres Bautista…Andres Bautista is expert in HOCUS PCOS and SMARTSWITIK…
The U.S. election counting machines were tampered. One machine clearly showed: “one vote for Biden, is multiplied twice on the counter, or even five times”.
Some programmers inserted , and installed a “Reprogrammed Counter” chip, in their SMARTSWITIK machines…”na Lugaw at na HOCUS PCOS na sila…
Fine job, Mr. Bautista…”talagang mga Pilipino, experts sa pandaraya !”
Many leaders now are looking for Andres Bautista, to help them win elections !
What satisfisfies human nature isn’t complicated, just ask them. What has been conditioning that nature is pretty evident when you look around. Classifying their preference to either liberal or democratic preferences is quite unrealistic.
how can you be inclusive to racists?
Looks like America will be in better hands now. They have a robot for a president. At least something smarter than the citizens.
Bigger hands, too.
Reuniting the Divided United States of America (D.U.S.A.) will be such a tall order for the old man, esp. given his lame duck situation. While they’re at it, China meanwhile is celebrating the demise of Trump’s “America First” Policy by lighting the sky with “Made in China” fireworks… China sends ‘world’s first 6G’ test satellite into orbit