The Jambar
Whether it’s the opinion of a news pundit or the ramblings of grandma at dinner, politics is nearly unavoidable, especially if you’ve chosen to stay moderately up to date with current events.
With the upcoming election, media channels have been inundated with dire calls-to-action from candidates, celebrities and thought leaders alike. However, presidential elections are rarely as serious as they’re made out to be.
While current contention points such as the economy, human rights and immigration are massively important, the federal politics highlighted in the media does not address these issues with thorough and proper care.
Presidential candidates will peacock on debate stages, but this politicking cannot be considered a promise for what they’ll do in office. In fact, the importance placed on presidential elections in general is an example of politics being taken too seriously.
Presidents rarely affect the daily life of an average United States citizen. When it comes to the actions of a president, only two things have an instant impact for us. They can declare war, and they can appoint officials to federal departments and bureaus.
These actions are not as influential as they sound. After 60 days — kind of — any war-like military action must be approved by Congress. In addition, laws and rulings will influence the decisions of federal officials more than whoever appointed them.
The reality is, the president’s power to affect you is less than that of Congress or the Supreme Court — not to mention local and state politicians, who have far more effect on the overall movement of our daily lives.
Taxes, gun regulations, public school curriculums, LGBTQ+ rights, police brutality instances, abortion and other hot-button debate topics are often overseen by local and state politicians, not presidents.
However, politics becomes very serious when extremists take overstated political speech as reason to perpetuate bigotry or political violence.
According to the Global Terrorism Database, cases of terrorism and extremist violence in the U.S. rose from 10 reported incidents in 2011 to 100 in 2020.
Data is not available for 2020 to now, but there have been numerous acts of political violence since the last available data, including the 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol, the 2022 assault of Paul Pelosi — husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi — and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July.
Extreme acts of political violence are not solely the product of politics and propaganda, however microaggressions and acts of bigotry and ignorance are propagated when caught in the echochamber of political rhetoric.
By refraining from rhetoric that overwhelms or misinforms us, we can begin to have more healthy and robust debates about politics without allowing further division.
Perform your civic duty, go out and vote. Keep in mind the importance of local elections, and remember the bubble you fill for a gubernatorial election is just as important as the one you fill for presidential elections. Plus, gubernatorial is just a fun word to say.
