By Sean Noble
As I endure the last few months of this election cycle, REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It,” has been playing on repeat in my mind.
From cable networks to talk radio, from my X feed to late night TV, partisans are working overtime to convince us that the world will never be the same if the candidate they oppose is elected.
It’s divisive…and exaggerated. They hurl invectives at one another and then they all scream that “we’ve never seen a political climate like this!” In fact, we have. This is a repeat of what typically happens every four years in a Presidential election.
“Nazi.” “Leftist crank.” “Baby Killer.” “Mush for brains.” These insults are as unoriginal as they are pernicious. They’re trotted out each election cycle.
Case in point, every Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater has been called a Nazi, a fascist, or Hitler—usually all three.
While, every Democratic candidate since Johnson has been called a socialist, communist, or Marxist.
And yet through the six Republican presidents and five Democratic presidents we have had since 1964, we've remained a vibrant Democratic Republic, not a fascist state or a socialist hotbed.
But wait, “this is the most important election of our lifetime!” “This could be the last election in our nation’s history.” Well, until the next one.
Presidential elections are consequential. But this is the United States of America; one election is not going to make or break our union. Despite the dire warnings of civil war coming from both sides of the political spectrum, we will remain a free and prosperous people.
Might there be protests, unrest, maybe even riots after the election? Probably. But those engaged in these disruptions are a tiny fraction of the American public. Most people will wake up the next morning, get on with their lives, and continue working hard to better their future.
And isn’t that the beauty of our system? Our Founding Fathers were damn smart. To a person, they were better read on government, philosophy, language, and mathematics than the vast majority of today’s PhD’s. They also cared deeply about creating a system of government that protects our God-given rights and allows us to pursue “a more perfect union.”
Their genius shines brightly in our three-branch system of government: Executive (President), Legislative (House and Senate), and Judicial (the Courts).
While partisans on either side always cry that their opponents will govern with “unchecked power,” the truth is considerably less dire. Just look at history.
When Trump was elected in 2016, the Left went into a panicked frenzy that he would be a dictator and imprison his political enemies. It didn’t happen.
When Biden won in 2020, the Right claimed that the election was stolen, that Biden would expand the Supreme Court, and that everyday Americans would lose all their rights. That didn’t happen either.
So, we must take these drastic predictions with a grain of salt. This is not new. It happens in every election. It was happening all the way back in our third Presidential election when John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson. According to Adams’ supporters, a Jefferson presidency would mean “Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will all be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes." So, they may have been more elegant in their hyperbole but it’s safe to say, not much has changed.
Despite this turmoil every four years, our nation endures.
The Founders knew that they were creating something special. The Declaration of Independence laid out the argument of self-government and that informed the debate that drafted the Constitution. By diffusing power among three separate branches, the Founders created a check on each branch against the other, and even checks within each branch.
We have seen multiple examples of this in action in just the last few years. The House of Representatives impeached Trump (twice) and the Senate failed to convict. The Executive branch attempted to prosecute a former President, and the Supreme Court ruled that Presidents have immunity while engaged in official actions.
Partisans wail and gnash teeth at the process, but it works and cooler heads prevail. Are there abuses that have yet to be rectified? Absolutely, but the system was designed to work slowly and deliberately. In this age of instant gratification, it is good for us to be reminded that we don’t want to live in a country where snap judgments by a government entity can forever change the trajectory of our nation.
If you feel anxiety creeping up as you watch the final days of the election unfold and the results come in on election night, just take a breath, and express gratitude to our Founders that we have a system that will work, despite the failings of the players in the game.
Sean Noble is the President of American Encore and co-host of the podcast Light Beer Dark Money
