Today is Monday, November 7, 2022, one day before the most consequential election cycle in our history and that ain’t no hyperbole. The control of the House and the Senate is at stake tomorrow and, concomittantly, our own country as well. Will voters recognize this when they go to the polls? Let’s hope that they do and that they are informed and will not vote with only their pocketbooks. An online article in today’s The Week by Theara Coleman explores if “democracy is on the midterm ballot.”

Citing recent polls, the article mentions that voters do agree that threats to democracy do exist, but feel that it’s not the most pressing issue during this election season. So a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll found that 71 percent of all voters surveyed said democracy was at risk, but only 7 percent deemed it the country’s most critical problem. The top two concerns were the economy, at 26 percent, and inflation, at 19 percent. These are deplorable repugnican tropes, no doubt about it. But if we don’t beat down those election deniers running for office, it won’t matter that these concerns will not ever be addressed by those repugnicans who will win their races, we just won’t have a democracy anymore.

According to the most recent survey, voters also seemed split over what they considered legitimate threats to the future of democracy. Republicans overwhelmingly identified Biden, mainstream media, the federal government, and mail-in ballots as threats. These are all repugnican boogeymen and it shows that these voters have accepted this hogwash, hook, line and sinker. Democrats, much more realistic than their repugnican counterparts in general, mainly cited Dumpf, while others pointed to the Supreme Court and the Electoral College, per The Times. However, 11 percent of voters said that government corruption, in general, was the issue – more than those who named Dumpf or Biden. A further 50 percent believe the American political system is “too divided politically to solve its problems.” I wonder who was responsible for creating this untenable situation in America right now?

To try to preserve democracy, political bigwigs like former President Barack Obama have campaigned for other Democratic candidates in the last stretch of Election Day. In Arizona, Obama warned voters at a rally in Phoenix that if they voted for election deniers, “then democracy as we know it may not survive.” His comment definitely was a reference to Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has refused to commit to accepting the ballot results if she doesn’t win. Let’s pray she doesn’t.

On the repugnican side, Senate Minority Leader “Bitch” McConnell preferred to shift the blame for the country’s ills onto Biden when he ridiculously stated, “President Biden is trying to divide and deflect at a time when America needs to unite – because he can’t talk about his policies that have driven up the cost of living.” He’s saying that Biden “divides and deflects”? What bullshit! He says Biden is responsible for disuniting the country, not his own party.

Some experts are focused on social media as the epicenter of the proliferation of election-related misinformation and conspiracy theories. Tuft University dean Bhaskar Chakravorti, who studies technology change and society, says the spread of misinformation will play an essential role in the upcoming midterms and the 2024 election. He warns, “The single galvanizing narrative is that the 2020 election was stolen.”

Misleading claims about mail ballot security, rumors about noncitizens voting, and stories about ballot locations being moved are spreading on various social media platforms ahead of tomorrow. In response, some of the companies have implemented new measures to remove false information from their platforms. One of those companies is Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, that has indicated it has taken measures to “strengthen our preparations.”

Even with some companies indicating that they are taking steps to remove misinformation from their platforms, other critics, though, say that the sheer number of false claims in circulation indicates tech enterprises are falling short. Jon Lloyd, the senior adviser at the nonprofit Global Witness, says popular social media companies “are still simply not doing enough to stop threats to democracy.” His organization recently published a report highlighting TikTok’s failure to remove advertisements with misleading election information.

A report from the Center for American Progress warns that after the spread of voter fraud conspiracies in 2020, “considerable threats to the democratic process remain, including the refusal to certify election results, increased voter intimidation, and abuse of electoral laws.”

While social media companies have not been found to be the cause of this existential threat to democracy, the organization does conclude that “they have allowed their platforms to be easily abused to carry out these attacks.”

So here we are, several hours to go before the beginning of this most momentous Election Day in America. Will American voters reject repugnican crass appeals to fear and self-interest or will they vote as if our democracy were truly on the ballot? We will probably not know those results tomorrow even.

For those who remember, tomorrow is my birthday, so I will be taking a break from writing this blog. I will also be watching, nervously, the many races up for grabs tomorrow to see which party will be declared the primary victors of this consequential election.

So please vote tomorrow if you haven’t already. Unfortunately, the weather isn’t supposed to be as summery as today. I think the high today was a sultry 78 degrees; tomorrow the high is supposed to be only 56 degrees. Brrr!

Hope to see you on Wednesday, the eve before my surgical procedure.

Stay safe and be well.