The New Regularly Scheduled Flight 93 Election

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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9 Responses

  1. Aaron David says:

    End of days, huh? Well, here in Oregon I think we have that going on right now!

    But anyhoo, a reckoning. That is what is needed politically, a forcing of the ways into one overarching path. And until that happens we will keep getting these Flight 93/39, party X must die, and so on memes and messages. Truly, BSDI. And anyone who will tell you different is a lying, dog-faced pony soldier, or something.Report

  2. Chip Daniels says:

    “This is the most important election of our lifetimes” may be hyperbolic but it isn’t entirely wrong.
    Every election is important and marks an inflection point in a path.

    The “Flight 93” stuff isn’t just hyperbole though.

    What it reflects is what I’ve noted before, a revolutionary mindset where any opposition is simply illegitimate and cannot be allowed to share power under any fashion.
    Especially in this case, where the dividing line is rooted not in ideas which can be compromised, but ethnic grievance and an assumed innate identity.

    The boogeymen Trump summons up- such as Cory Booker coming to a suburb near you- can’t offer any sort of compromise which Anton would find acceptable;
    Cory Booker is himself objectionable, his innate quality is what must not be allowed to hold power.Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    There was a period of broadish bipartisan consensus that began roughly around the 1940 election between Wendell Wilkie and FDR and died a slow death starting in 1964 and whose final end date probably passed but is hard to set. This time period was probably a huge historical outlier that unfortunately nearly everyone alive can either recall or is closely related to someone who can. Before that, partisan bitterness was just as deep as it is today, maybe more so. And this was at a time when both parties basically catered to white men.

    I agree with your points in theory but am not sure how to scale it back in reality. Chp’s points stand out well and loud.Report

  4. LeeEsq says:

    We are basically living in Juan Linz’s universe. The Madisonian system works the best when both parties are roughly ideologically and policy similar but represent different groups. When you have real ideologically differences between the parties and radically different ideas on the conception of the body politic, in our case White Christian America vs. Multicultural America, than you are going to get a lot of conflict. Parliamentary systems aren’t necessary free of these conflicts but provide for an ability to avoid divided government, where both parties may claim democratic legitimacy because they hold different branches of the government.Report

  5. Damon says:

    Obama was the end of the world.
    Trump was/is the end of the world.
    Somehow the Empire stumbles along….and will likely continue to do so, but I do long for the revolution.Report

  6. Almost 200,000 dead because there was a perceived partisan advantage in it, but sure, BSDI.Report