The media bombardment is neverending. Trump is going to steal the election. Be afraid, be very afraid!
Rachel Maddow intoned last night, “What will you do for your country when it needs you?” It’s time to defend American democracy, she said. She offered exactly zero ideas for what actual people should actually do.
A headline at Slate: “I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy.” And that worry translates into what action? None, really. Because the fate of American democracy — as if it still existed in the first place — does not lie in our hands.
You are being played, people. Left-leaning media is full of these stories because they are preying on your anxiety to rack up clicks.
Yes, Trump and the Republicans will try to steal the election. So what? There’s not much, if anything, you can do about it. Worrying about it accomplishes nothing beyond demoralizing you — which is precisely Trump’s goal.
Bullies don’t do their work by beating you up. They do it by making you fear getting beaten up. Trump’s blustering and bullshit are reaching a crescendo because, as I said somewhere in a comment, he can’t win a fair election, and he can’t win even an unfair election if Republicans only use their tried-and-true voter suppression tactics. What you hear are the flailing last words of a criminal — “You’ll never get me, coppers!”
If all this worrying affected only its sufferers, it would be bad enough. But by spreading their anxiety all over social media, liberals are basically doing Trump’s work for him.
If you’re worried about civil war, the only question is whether you intend to fight in it. If you do, make whatever preparations you deem necessary.
Otherwise, just knock it off. If you’re that anxious, buy yourself a binky, but stop demoralizing your own side with your premonitions of doom. It does no good, and it does actual harm.