Let the undecideds decide

Let me go on record as saying I don’t care who Jennifer Lawrence, Oprah Winfrey, or Sam Elliott endorses. I don’t care who you, dear reader, endorse. As a pro-life, evangelical, Coolidge/Goldwater/Reaganite [now] Independent, my main concern is the preservation of this delicate experiment in self-governance, known as the United States of America.

This is not to say that as fellow citizens we should automatically reject the concerns of our neighbors. This is, rather, a call to clarity and reason. This is a call to return to the vision of our forefathers. We have fought the great battle of Brother versus Brother. How sad that some choose to rush back to that ugly, bloody history, almost as if it is a past to be romanticized.

It is not.

The polarization of our nation has been a long, plodding, deliberate process. It did not start over just the past decade. Left to our own devices, men will always find a way to clash, even if among countrymen. The sea of politics, more than any other factor, has a way of creating the cruelest and most clamorous of atmospheres. I have long said that partisanship is a poison. I only regret that I was blind to the venom in my own bloodstream for far too long. I fought the battle of Tea Party conservatism versus the dark specter of creeping ruin, known as liberalism. I even had a hoodie that I proudly sported to events, which read: Liberalism: A condition where someone is so open-minded that their brains have fallen out.

I still maintain that some of the fast held tenets of leftists are just dumb and impractical, at best. I can no longer, however, claim that the right has a better grasp of sanity. Damnable Trumpism has removed all doubt that there’s plenty of idiocy to go around.

To that point, I would like to take a few paragraphs here to make the case for the outliers and outcasts; those wandering nomads and bohemian drifters of no-political-home. Those like myself, politically unaffiliated, and those who may still cling to a partisan registry, but find themselves at a crossroad. While I, personally, have settled on the direction of my vote, many more are undecided. We are less than a month away from the election. It is an incredibly tight race. Neither candidate should take it for granted that they have the race won, and it just may be those who are still wrestling with their decision who end up tipping this most critical contest.

At this point, it appears that approximately 2% to 5% of total voters are still undecided. The largest portion of those who are still undecided seems to be with Independent voters, with a bit over 25% of that faction still struggling.

Surprisingly, it is Republican voters who bring up the next two slots. When I say “Republican voters,” I’m speaking of those who are more moderate or “traditional” Republicans. The extremist MAGA cult are in their bunkers and waiting for the comet to pass by.

Democrats, on the other hand, have a small percentage of undecided voters, whether traditional, progressive, or centrist, but they do have them.

Given this knowledge it would seem the GOP is getting sick of living like an abused spouse of the MAGA bully. The question is, will they break from their party or toe the partisan line? Men of courage have seemingly been in short supply on the right, lately.

I believe messaging will play a large part in hooking those undecided voters and getting them to the polls. Right now, Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting every avenue, making her play for every last vote, including the undecideds among the Republican party. Her vow to bring Republicans into her cabinet, in order to restore a healthy, 2-party system again may seem a little wonky to the furthest regions of the leftwing, but for the more centrist crowd on either side, it could be a breath of fresh air.

In fact, a recent Emerson College poll shows that this may just be the case.

Emerson College polling, conducted between October 14 and 16, shows that among undecided voters who chose who they would vote for in the past week or month, 60 percent opted for the Democratic vice president, while 36 percent opted for Republican former President Donald Trump.

Among those voters, 57 percent opted for Harris in the past month, while 41 percent opted for Trump. Meanwhile, among undecided voters who chose who they would vote for in the past week, 65 percent chose Harris, while 27 percent opted for Trump.

The numbers can get confusing, but a clear takeaway is that Harris is doing a better job of convincing people to take a chance on her. Trump, on the other hand, is replaying the greatest hits of 2016, to increasingly smaller crowds. Maybe his untethered threats and despotic bravado, mixed with a hefty slathering of mush-mouthed nonsense isn’t quite the draw it used to be. Only the diehards and spineless mercenaries remain. The question is: Will they be enough?

The former president would serve himself well to try and reach those undecided voters, but he only knows how to talk to the radical rightwing. He keeps the language low and dumb. He paints a bleak picture of a national hellscape, with himself as some sort of geriatric Mad Max. Who is the enemy?

Other.

Who is our savior?

Trump.

How will you save us?

*Batteries, sharks, me, me, me, garble-furnkleshnerkledurp…*

Is this really what American voters want to hear at this critical juncture in our history?

Time, and very likely, the decision of the undecideds, will tell.

Only one thing in this election remains clear, and that is the need for a national reset. We have lost our way, allowed partisanship to divide us, and the worst players to invade our space, exploit our differences for their own gain, and create a chasm that serves only to elevate their power, while weakening our common bonds.

President Abraham Lincoln once remarked:

“Let us neither express nor cherish any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling.”

How far removed from that level of maturity in our highest seats of government we seem, these days.

How desperately we need to return.