Are you tired, North Carolina?

Election Day is Tuesday, and already, Americans have made a statement. They’ve mailed in ballots in record numbers. They’ve come early to the polls and stood in line, sometimes for hours. They’ve shown an extraordinary urgency, and it’s driven — at least for some — by an underlying fatigue. Beyond important issues like health care and our economy, we are tired.

Are you?

Are you tired of the racist videos?

They fill our inboxes and social media feeds. The white woman walking up to an exercising Asian woman just to say “get the (expletive) out of this state.” The white woman telling a Latino family “we speak English in this country.” The women and men defacing Black Lives Matter murals or screaming from trucks or yelling “white power” from a golf cart.

We’re tired of them. We’re tired of Charlottesville and Proud Boys and proudly biceped Nazi tattoos. We’re tired of hate being something closer to mainstream.

Are you tired, too?

Are you tired of the tantrums — the people tossing food or throwing fits because someone dares ask them to wear a mask?

Are you tired of the delusional — the people who embrace the lunacy of Qanon or look at 230,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States — and countless more with long-term afflictions — and think that science is lying to them?

Are you tired of the merely inconsiderate — the people who choose their virus skepticism over your virus risk?

Are you tired of a president who, incredibly, encourages that?

Let’s be clear: The ugliness we see in this country started long before Donald Trump was elected. But there has been an unburdening of behavior these past four years. Racist incidents, including hate crimes, have climbed, according to those who keep track. Our conversations, digital and otherwise, are filled with bile. Science is taking a beating like it never has.

There’s little doubt that at least some of it starts at the top. Not just with a president who is reflexively coarse and repulsively demeaning, but with Republicans who refuse to rebuke him — or, even worse, mimic him. In North Carolina, we see that in GOP lawmakers who for years have sneered at colleagues and judges who disagree with them. We see it in a GOP candidate for Congress, Dan Bishop, who joyfully calls Democrats “clowns.” We see it in a candidate for governor, Dan Forest, who gleefully flouts public health recommendations. We see it in a candidate for lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, who calls Muslims “invaders” and says those who support transgender people “glorify Satan.”

Does this mean all Republicans are coarse, angry bigots, or that Democrats and progressives have a perfect behavioral track record? Of course not. But it does mean that in exchange for policies and judges, at least some Republicans have accepted a more widespread behavior in their party that they wouldn’t allow in their own homes. They’ve supported a president who doesn’t share the values they’ve long said they held, and they’re OK with members of Congress who embrace — or at least decline to rein in — that president.

All of which is also on the ballot this year. We understand people might vote on policy alone in the presidential race and in local and state elections, and this is not an endorsement of any candidate or candidate’s views. As you vote — if you haven’t already — you certainly should be considering taxes or immigration or Medicaid expansion, but you also should think about how we talk to each other, treat each other, see each other. This much we know: What used to raise eyebrows has become more acceptable.

No, we don’t expect everyone to agree about what’s ailing this country or how to fix it. We don’t want everyone to hug. But there’s been an unmistakable shift in this country, a division that we worry could worsen. We’re tired, and we’re alarmed. Are you?

This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Are you tired, North Carolina?."