Our friends at 270 reasons.com are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 reasons.com.
Because the American Experiment
Is on the Defensive
by Percival Everett
I am plenty impressed by Kamala Harris and her ideas. It is a shame that she is running against someone who makes a positive vote for her more a negative vote against something else. The American experiment is on the defensive. Yes, we hear so many people saying that the election of Trump would be a danger to democracy. They are, of course, correct. My fear is deeper. Even if our processes and governmental structure survive, we will have been made worse by the normalizing of ignorance and selfishness. It has been frustrating to watch a media that does not call stupidity what it is or point out the self-serving actions of the past president who is seeking office again. We would be naïve to not recognize that some people in the world are either unwilling to do the hard work of thinking through problems with an eye toward the greater good or incapable of doing so. What is at stake in this election is our national IQ.
Percival Everett is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at USC.
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The arguments here represent the opinion of the author and not necessarily those of the McSweeney’s Literary Arts Fund.