CARLTON FLETCHER: Sorry, zealots, the world will keep turning post-Nov. 3

“That’s the way of the world.”

— Earth, Wind & Fire

Hate to burst all the bubbles of these folks who follow one or another political party or political candidate with the faith of a religious zealot, but this is not “THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY!!!!!!”

The Nov. 3 vote is, actually, just another exercise in democracy that will put one person or another in the positions of president, senator, representative, etc. If one person or the other wins any of these races, the world is not going to end, as opponents declare; we’re not going to turn into socialists overnight; no one is going to round up and take away everyone’s guns, and no one is going to round up and shoot all the immigrants who’ve come to this country.

Actually, while life will go on just as it has for millennia, the biggest determinant in how our world will change after Nov. 3 is whether any success is made on finding a vaccine that actually protects people from the pandemic that does not currently seem inclined to loosen its grip on the world. And, sorry true believers, no matter what they promise and no matter what you’ve been programmed to believe, not one of the people running for office has the capability of altering that longed-for miracle in any great way.

The naive and the brainwashed among us would like to believe that we’re going to a) find the answers to all of our woes and reunite as a nation once our candidate(s) is/are voted into office and b) stop all this partisan bickering once the election is over. That ain’t gonna happen.

We still have people disputing and arguing over the eight years of the Obama administration on a daily basis; angry people still accuse George W. Bush of stealing the election from Al Gore (On that one, if the angry people stopped to think about things a little, they’d know that George W. Bush is not smart enough to fix an election for Mayhaw Queen, much less the presidency of the United States … that guy might’ve been a bit of a gentleman but he was no scholar); and the back and forth over the last election continues unabated some four years later.

Hell, we even have people arguing over the outcome of the American Civil War some 150-plus years after the fact.

Minus maybe a handful of examples in our nation’s history, the current occupant of the White House is arguably the strongest-willed person ever to hold the office. And with a sycophantic Senate fighting for the opportunity to do his will — most of whom, by the way, mocked Mr. Trump and assured him he would in no manner sully their fine institution if by some horrific freak of nature he won the election but suddenly had to eat their words and bow to their new master when he did actually win — even Trump has not been able to do most of the things he boasted he’d do (although he has bent the laws of his country to his will at times with the backing of a Congress afraid of his wrath).

Even with what some call a bullying — some an admirably tough — approach to the office, the current president has managed to affect very little lasting change in this country after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out his positive economic numbers.

So, no, the world will not spin off its axis if one candidate or another wins this election or that one. And pretty much all these people who vowed to leave or stand up and fight to right any election outcome that didn’t meet their worldview will slink back to their little worlds, never to be heard from again. (The others that don’t will be arrested, and things will move forward.)

Maybe that’s why this is such a great country. We have our little periods of upheaval, and we carry on in the wake of calamity. I’ve got a feeling the 2020 election will have its moments of calamitousness. But we’ll move on, leaving the losers to history.

It’s what we always do.