COLUMNIST
Editor’s Page By Victoria A. Schmidt
A
s I write this editorial, the United States is wrapping up an election unlike any in our history. By the time this magazine hits the street, the voting will be over. Thankfully. I remember a time when I looked forward to election results. But I believe there are many readers out there who are sick of talking about, hearing about, and reading about this election. As am I. This election has exposed the dark side of American politics. Yes, there has always been some degree of mud-slinging, but previously unacceptable behavior now seems to have become the norm, the line between fair and foul obliterated. While I used to look forward to browsing through my e-mail, now there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not inundated with requests for donations—for candidates running for office in states I’ve never even lived in! How, I wonder, did some of these people get my e-mail address? It has reached the point that I’ve begun to click on my e-mail icon with a sense of dread. Although I love the country I was born into, I dislike what it has become. And I point my finger at no one, believing that, much like the coronavirus, an unknown and uncharted strangeness has blanketed
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El Ojo del Lago / November 2020
all of us. Now, it is almost impossible to find out if the information I am reading is correct. Is it true? Is it false? Is it an intentional lie? A conspiracy? Is it dark web? And what about alternative facts? Faux news? Fake news? I read a lot, but my latest reading has been “How to identify fake video, and the difference between fake video and deep fake video. False information and how to spot it.” I want simply to read; I don’t want to have to do an analysis of everything I read. That is the job of journalism’s fourth estate. What has happened is that when it comes to government, no one knows who or what to believe anymore. This is from ALL sides of the political spectrum. Not only have today’s tactics led to confusion, they have also led to the breakdown of trust on so many different levels. People don’t know what to think, what to believe. Even people who are trained critical thinkers shake their heads in frustration. In my mind, there is a big difference between politics and being elected. No matter who “wins” this election, we all lose. Because on the first post-election morning, all the politicians who didn’t win—and even those who did—start running for the next term. No real work of governing is being completed because doing the work they were elected to do always takes a back seat to the next
