One thing this presidential election has brought out in the general public that I cannot stand is the peculiar habit of people to air their opinions as frequently as CNN mentions Donald Trump. Seriously, if you watch 15 minutes of CNN, you’ll think Trump is Dr. Evil from “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” It seems to me this behavior, namely the obsessive instinct to break down every single word and deed from both candidates, has trickled down into our everyday conversations. To be honest, I am tired of reading and hearing the banal, repetitive and cliche opinions that have been passed around as frequently as a cute puppy since last year.
That being said, I must clarify: I am by no means perfect. Indeed, I am a hopeless hypocrite. That's why this column is dedicated to the same practice I just lamented: airing my worthless opinions about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Can I provide an insight that no one else has provided? Doubtful. In fact, I am more likely to dunk a basketball than I am to captivate your imagination about this grossly over-covered issue. And for your information, I’ve never even touched rim before. So the chances are quite slim.
In my observations of the behavior of Democrats and Republicans, though, I have noticed a very human flaw — one that certainly plagues my conscience: believing returning to or progressing toward a different time period will solve societal problems. This tendency is easier to spot in Republican rhetoric; conservatives are by definition seeking to fix today by implementing yesterday. They suffer from the habit of living in the past and, in turn, romanticizing and deifying the culture of a previous time.
I am not bashing Republicans; I share some of their core convictions. But I find, as C.S. Lewis warned in “The Four Loves,” that “the actual history of every country is full of shabby and even shameful doings. The heroic stories, if taken to be typical, give a false impression of it and are often themselves open to serious historical criticism.” In other words, when we look to the past for salvation, we tend to overlook just how flawed of a savior the past really is.
Trump has crystallized this tendency in his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” In response to Trump, many people have offered the critique that this nation was never truly great. Certainly truth can be found in this statement. But I wonder if anyone has uttered this statement: “This nation will never be truly great.” I say this simply because it is liberals who turn to a Trump figure and wag their fingers at his historical revisionism and then march to a Clinton rally, where the future is praised in advance for bringing the much-awaited peace on earth. In other words, if conservatives are too busy comparing this broken present with the glorious past, then liberals are too busy debunking the past and fantasizing about the future.
G.K. Chesterton had his finger on this issue about 100 years ago when he said, “They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back,” in his book “What’s Wrong with The World.” To rephrase Chesterton, liberals live for the future because they reject the past. They engage in the same behavior that conservatives do, just in a different time period.
And that is my larger point: Trump and Clinton are two sides of the same coin, which is namely the habit of turning to another time period as a means to brighten this one. In doing so, I fear they distract us from the only time period that matters: the present.
But who wants to listen to another amateur opinion?
Scott Stimson is a UF English sophomore. His column appears on Wednesdays.
