I call it “the Stop the Madness Vote”, and I think it's real. What it means in the case of the recent – and still disputed -- election is that a certain portion of the populace will cast a vote neither pro nor con a given candidate, but merely in the hope that it will help things to return to normal (however defined). After all, the citizenry has, for four-plus years now, been exposed to a level of political and social warfare that, for sheer viciousness and chaos, rivals anything most of them have experienced in a “real” war. Granted, there haven't been that many fatalities or serious injuries directly attributable to the conflict, but the citizenry are fatigued... exhausted... rubbed raw... and have been forced to live in a world where every conceivable thing (and some inconceivable things) have been totally politicized. We've been living in a crucible for over four years now. Economies on all levels save the very top layer have been shattered using the corona virus as an excuse. Innumerable relationships, even within families, have been strained or even broken... and the degree of mutual suspicion, hostility, and alienation among the citizenry has reached a level comparable to that in totalitarian societies. This was not the way we were meant to live in what is supposedly a free and open society; it's more like the atmosphere of the proverbial banana republic, where there is a coup or revolution every few weeks, and the sounds of marching boots and gunfire are always to be heard.
The forces and entities that have created this dystopian/nightmare world for us are many, and represent many motivations and agendas, which can be debated at another time. What I suspect is that the average voter, being an average citizen who simply wants to be allowed to live a simple, ordinary life without having to put up with a constant drumbeat of politics that he has no choice but to listen to... that person may eventually decide to vote not for a given candidate, or against a given candidate, but simply for whomever they think is most likely to return things to normal. They don't even have to agree with their platform or stated positions! In fact, they might find them distasteful. But the motivation to remove politics from everyday life – from something requiring 24/7 attention, and from which there is no escape – and go back to something that is confined to what used to be termed “election season” before the unending campaign era started has to be strong and compelling.
For example, a vote for Trump in November would have required a commitment, or at least a willingness to put up with, four more years of what has been going on for four-plus years already. (I detailed this in a recent post: https://zarathustrasoldman.blogspot.com/2020/07/4-more-years-really.html) Now, for a certain type of person this sort of thing is the ideal – pure red meat – crack cocaine. It's the way they want to live, and the way they expect others to live as well. Call them political junkies, swamp creatures, Deep State denizens, whatever – they thrive on battle, warfare, intrigue, and double-dealing, and cannot imagine life being any other way if it is to be satisfying and fulfilling. A good example of this personality type is “The Squad” which occupies the very tip of the left wing of the Democratic Party. But other Democrats are energized in a similar fashion, and even some Republicans – although the latter, being conservative by nature if not always by practice, would rather life was more like that depicted in certain classic TV shows like “Mayberry R.F.D.” The Democrats, on the other hand, seem to prefer an environment more akin to “Animal House” – at least the anarchistic part, which eventually leads to tyranny and totalitarianism. And because we are in an age of revolution, the Democratic world view is naturally the dominant one, and the one that appeals to perhaps not the majority of the populace but to enough of them that they are willing to vote for The Squad and their facilitators (and those who are afraid of getting on their wrong side, like a certain president-elect).
But we're talking about large segments of the voting populace here, and the Stop the Madness Vote would apply to a minority – and yet an important one, the way the “swing” or “independent” vote is always much sought after by both parties. These voters would have consisted mainly of people who might have voted for Trump in 2016, or for a third party candidate, or who had just sat out the election. This time around, they did not sit it out, but they didn't vote for Trump either. They might have voted third party, but more likely they would have voted for Biden (with noses firmly held) just to bring America's very own domestic perpetual war to an end.
But in this they would have been mistaken, since once Biden is ensconced and the powers behind his throne take over, the real war begins – or, more accurately, the war on the middle class and on “American values” that has been gaining momentum for decades finally enters the consolidation stage, in which all who resist are hunted down and neutralized. (This process has already been announced, when it comes to members of the Trump administration and its supporters, by various and sundry Democrats and their facilitators in the media. But you can expect it to extend to broader horizons as well.) This will be a bigger war, and have more dire effects on the citizenry, than anything that has occurred over the previous five years, and will almost make them yearn for the “good old days” when all they had to worry about was Trump's collusion with Russia, Trump's racism/sexism/xenophobia, Trump's grounds for impeachment, Trump's hair and necktie and skin, etc. and the reaction of the opposition or resistance to all of these. We have seen what the opposition is capable of – all the masks have been taken off and discarded, and the agenda is completely out in the open for, perhaps, the first time in our history. And once Trump is out of the way will there be “peace in the valley”? Au contraire! The same people who have been waging all-out war on Trump will turn their sights on the citizenry – especially the middle class – especially anyone suspected of having “conservative” or “reactionary” tendencies. And they have plenty of models to choose from, from the Bolshevik revolution in Russia to Maoism in China. The major – and remarkable – difference is that this time the revolution has the full support of the ruling elite... the money class. So it will be both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum against the middle. (Advice: Figure out some way to get either very rich or extremely poor before it's too late.)
But really, hasn't this always been the dream of totalitarians the world over? Create a two-class society with a ruling elite (i.e., them) and a vast horde of faceless serfs (i.e., the rest of us), with no one in between? This is precisely what's happening in the economy right now. It's no coincidence, and no accident. And the corona pandemic is not to blame; it just served to accelerate the process by providing an excuse for totalitarian diktats. And don't expect the dismal history of various attempts to accomplish this to discourage anyone; this is, after all, a war of ideas, and actual material consequences are of little interest.
So yes, the Stop the Madness Vote may have helped take Trump down and set Biden up – but whatever it is they thought they were doing thereby may turn to crushing disappointment. But don't expect them to stand up and apologize in public; that would not be “normal”.
