If there is anything politicians are eager to do, it’s selling themselves as the last, great hope for all mankind. While campaigning has always involved presenting one’s policies and demeanor as the best choice for the electorate, recent iterations have grown to include a doomsday-type spin. Unfortunately, this trend isn’t specific to just one party.
Each election, whether it be midterm or presidential, matters. Citizens of this great nation are fortunate enough to reside in a country where we’re free to vote (or not vote) for whichever candidate we prefer. We are not barred from taking part in the process due to gender or race. This is indeed a privilege not enjoyed by everyone around the world. Furthermore, when political power does change hands, it is done so in a peaceful manner. Though the United States is deeply divided on issues great and small, there is no broad, societal chaos when one politician leaves the Oval Office and another enters. Not every nation can say the same.
In March during his speech at CPAC, President Trump told the audience that the only way to combat Democratic overreach was to reelect him for another term: “The best way to stop that is to make sure I win the election.” The problem is, this strategy only works in the interim.
At best, Trump’s presidency will comprise a total of eight years in length. Republicans are not guaranteed of keeping the Democrat agenda at bay just because they vote for Donald Trump in November 2020.
The attitude that says “vote for me, or else doom will be upon us” is certainly not particular to the GOP. Their opposition is famous for running with this theme, too.
In 2012, Democrats promoted incumbent President Barack Obama as the only answer in scary and uncertain times. In return, Republicans ran with Mitt Romney. Both sides said, “This is the most important election of our lifetime!” A quick, online search of the phrase pulls up its usage in journalism and campaigning during the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016, as well as the midterm elections of 2018.
Is every election important? Yes. Is each one the ultimate and most important one we’ll ever see? No. By applying this label too often, the phrase has lost all meaning. But politicians hope this myopic talk will spur individual voters to choose them at the polls.
On Tuesday, Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, whose campaign performance so far has been rather bland, used this popular fear tactic at a campaign stop in the bellwether state of Iowa.
The use of “forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation” could be dropped into any politician’s speech, Democrat or Republican, and make an impact. It would help to inspire and ignite many of those listening to it. This turn of phrase is politically preferable to a realistic explanation that states President Trump (and others to come) won’t be in office forever. The landscape will bear marks of anyone’s leadership, but each successive politician is yet another in a long line.
Difficult as it may be to believe, the era of Barack Obama, which the GOP was anxious to escape from, didn’t go on indefinitely. That chapter closed. In its place is another president with a finite term of four or eight years. The 45th president has even erased some of Obama’s supposedly untouchable legacy. Electing President Trump in 2020 may keep Democrats from advancing their agenda, but only for the foreseeable future.
Nothing can be done to quell talk that suggests national ruination if candidate fill-in-the-blank is victorious. Elections have consequences, but voters must think beyond the current cycle. The men and women seeking our support in 2020 passionately claim they’ll be our political saviors. Spoiler alert: We’ll hear the same in 2024, too.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
