Good article by Carey Wedler:
"Every election cycle, it is frustrating to watch people clamor to voting booths and place blind trust in untrustworthy politicians with track records of hypocrisy and dishonesty. Every election cycle, I am told the stakes have never been higher and that I must support this or that candidate to save the country. Every election cycle, it’s the most important election of our lifetime. Civilization hangs in the balance of the battle between good and evil. According to many voters, the politician they’re voting against is obviously the embodiment of evil. The politician they’re voting for is obviously fighting for good (or at least less evil). And every election cycle, nothing changes. The ruling class stays in power and continues chipping away at liberty while gaslighting the public with talking points and veneers of progress.
"I understand how and why people get sucked into the false promises of politicians. The state of the world and politics is grim. Faith in governing institutions is staggeringly low, and the problems this system has created seem insurmountable. The hopelessness can feel overwhelming, so when a charismatic politician validates your concerns and promises to fix everything, the temptation to place your faith in them can be too strong to resist. Add in the fact that we are all taught the virtues of representative government and elections, and it’s no wonder people become entranced by political rhetoric.
"I am no stranger to this experience; my near-fanatic trust in Barack Obama (based on his rhetoric, not his record) led me down the same path. But when contradictions kept mounting during his presidency, it became harder and harder to cling to his campaign promises. When I realized Obama failed to live up to the election rhetoric that led me to vote for him, I faced disappointment similar to what many MAGA voters feel now. I felt betrayed, angry, and even a bit ashamed to have fallen for it. But as the Sufi poet Rumi is often credited with saying, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” (I can’t confirm Rumi said exactly this, but the sentiment is applicable regardless of the source).
"As painful as the experience was, it allowed me to open my mind to other possibilities. If the politician I trusted so wholeheartedly was just like all the others, what hope was there for a political solution? On one hand, this was even more demoralizing. The mechanisms for social progress and accountability I was told were sacrosanct (voting, elections, and representative government) were actually vehicles for control, abuse, and authoritarianism. The very system I was taught gave me power and agency was keeping me subservient to the machine and unable to see possibilities outside of it. I was caught in a mental and existential matrix."
Rest of article: https://pleasuretoburn.substac....k.com/p/trumps-epste
