By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index

If you thought Christmas marketing was coming earlier and earlier every year, consider election year. It seems to me that this is the season that never ends.

Election year is kind of like that unpleasant medical exam or awkward and unavoidable family gathering that comes before you have recovered from the previous one.

In the past several years we (most of us, anyway) swiveled from a broadly aspirational and optimistic national, even international view to a conspiracy-addled, dystopian vision of a country threatened by foreign enemies – and domestic threats we didn’t even have a name for a year ago.

Many of us are primed, some even armed, ready to fight about anything from gas stoves to corporate and military training programs and abstractions like “wokism”.

Uncharted territory

The term “uncharted territory” has become the catch-all term for the whole category of elements that sum up our pressing issues and, to put it mildly, peculiar elements of our political landscape.

When we have a mug-shot of a former president (and currently leading candidate of a major political party) both flooding social media and used as campaign material, we know that, at minimum, we are in for a surreal presidential election like we, or perhaps anyone, has ever seen before.

How this turn of events will affect the economy, global affairs or even family gatherings is anyone’s guess.

When the leading candidate of the political party that once held “law and order” as a core principle is currently under indictment (and out on bail) for multiple felonies, you know that something has changed, but few of us know what it is.

Add in the advanced age, and precarious health of both major party candidates and you have a recipe for uncertainty few of us could have imagined.

Welcome to the Kobayashi Maru

Many years ago, a popular saying was “art imitates life”. In our times, as in many categories, the opposite holds true. In our headlines and daily lives, “life imitates art”.

Here’s just one example, for those who are familiar with the Star Trek universe, the Kobayashi Maru is a test given at Starfleet Academy. In the test, cadets participate in a training simulation where everything goes wrong; no matter what they choose, and, no matter what they do or decide. The session ends with the failure of the mission and their deaths.

The point of the Kobayashi Maru is to impress on potential leaders that some games cannot be won, no matter what you do. In some situations every decision, no matter how “informed” it might be—especially when the stakes are high—leads to a grim, if not disastrous outcome.

What became of win-win?

A generation ago Stephen Covey advocated for a decision-making process that led to a “win-win” – where both parties to a transaction or process felt that they “won” what they wanted.

In our fractious times everything from breakfast cereal to children’s toys or books are fodder for our (or at least some of us) favorite all-consuming past-time – “culture wars”. For far too many of us, to see ‘the other side’ “win” anything is intolerable.

We have a whole cohort of politicians (and business people, and maybe a few stray family members) who would be thrilled to burn the whole system to the ground to ensure that “those people” didn’t “win”.

Consider for example the current legal/political possibilities in front of us in the next year or so – and this is if no “black swan” unpredictable events emerge – like a pandemic, emerging conflict or incapacitation of a candidate occurs.

(1) A jury finds Trump guilty of even a few of the charges in the months before the general election. Trump’s support falls dramatically. Biden wins a clearly defined re-election.

(2) A jury finds Trump guilty (or even not guilty) before the general election, Trump’s base (and many independents) are motivated to support Trump in a decisive victory over Biden.

Or (3) regardless of any jury decision, the election is contested indefinitely – potentially muddling elections local and national for the next several election cycles, if not permanently.

In short, no matter what happens “legally” (meaning in the courts), our electoral process has been compromised, and widespread disrespect for our courts, political system and the rule of law has become woven into our cultural fabric.

Disunity and contention have become the overall campaign theme for many who seem eager to trade our well being for their own publicity and place in the headlines.

I know that in 2023 and beyond, it will sound hopelessly naive and idealistic, but I like the idea of free and fair elections, citizen involvement, participatory democracy, respect for law, and even a “united” states, and where people and parties I may “disagree with” might even “win” once in a while.

If “rights” and opportunities are only for some, it’s a system of privilege, not equality. Liberty and justice (and opportunity) for all is not just a slogan. It’s who we are. Or at least the target some of us aim for.

And it’s who the world needs us to be.