Subdivisions
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
I was listening to my wife tell me about a group she is involved with. They are twelve women, from around the world, who came together online in a chat-room sometime back before Y2K. They are all devout Christians, and the Bible was the subject of their online discussions.
They are all very close friends, with each traveling the world to meet their friends face to face. The problem that my wife was discussing with me, was that in the recent past years, the group has divided along political lines, with four members in the liberal-left/anti-Trump camp, four members in the conservative-right/love-Trump camp, and four who are in the moderate-middle/that don’t care for Trump, but do not necessarily hate him either.
As a Libertarian, I noticed that there was a common thread among the groups, one Donald J. Trump. One subdivision of the group can’t stand the guy, while another subdivision thinks he’s the next best thing since Jesus, while the third subdivision is left indifferent to the guy, with both of the more extremely opinionated groups assuming that the middle supports their rivals’ views.
As a historian, I couldn’t help but notice the division into three, the same as happened during our American Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1783, where one-third remained loyal to the king, one-third were revolutionaries, and one-third were indifferent to whom was in charge, as all they wanted was to get on with their personal lives.
As a musician, I was taken back to the autumn of 1982, as I began my freshman year of college, and the Canadian progressive-rock band “Rush” released a single entitled “Subdivisions” from their album “Signals.”
The song is a commentary on social stratification through the pressure to adopt certain lifestyles. It describes young people dealing with a “cool” culture amid a comfortable yet oppressively mundane suburban existence in housing subdivisions. Anyone who does not obey social expectations is regarded as an outcast; the lyrics flatly describe a choice of “conform or be cast out.” … Oh my, how history does repeat itself!
I find that “We the People” of the twenty-first century are little different than our predecessors, whether from just 40 years ago, or from 240 years ago. We seem to inevitably divide ourselves into three camps, and what makes us different today is how social media enables us to be drawn into an echo-chamber, where our opinions are “liked” by people with similar opinions, as we demonize those who are not “cool” and cast them into the camp of our social enemies.
This past primary election had a voter turnout of only 21%. That means that for every group of five people, four of the five let just one person dictate whom will be on the ballot come November. Maybe the middle got bigger, but their apathy has allowed the two more extreme camps to control the narrative.
When it comes to a showdown between Biden and Trump this November, to me it is a classic battle between the lesser of two evils. Both have pros, and both have cons, but both have a con list that outweighs their pro list, so which has a lesser con list?
Both of them have signed off on adding more to our national debt in a single term than any president before them. To me, a race between Biden and Trump is a race between the two oldest and two most economically illiterate men to ever run. Trump may have slightly fewer cons on his list, but only barely. None the less, the lesser of two evils, is still evil.
“We the People” of Coosa County, and the State of Alabama and these United States need to remember that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. This November we need to remember that this is not a contest for the lesser of two evils, but a contest for whom would actually perform the best as the acting executive of our federal government.
You have more than two choices. If not the Libertarian candidate, then write in literally any person that you think could do a better job, whether it’s a friend, someone you look up to, or even yourself. John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), the sixth president of our United States, said it best, when he said: “Always vote for principle, though you vote alone, and you may cherish the sweet reflection that your vote is never lost.”
As for me, I will always vote for more liberty and more freedom. I’ll see all y’all at the polls in November.