Earlier today, I wrote the following in a series of tweets:
"That's funny. The Earth's still spinning."
"And the Sun still rose in the East."
"And the sky is still blue."
So much of the political rhetoric, from candidates, from media coverage, and from individuals like you and me, often places too much "direness" into a particular result. I don't want to imply that voting and being involved and participatory in civic activities is not important; because it is, and the privilege to be self-governed and to "have a say" is simply a great thing. But so much of the language, rhetoric, and stereotypes that we use feels so detached from reality, I think it becomes hard to take it seriously.
No one's moving to Canada as a result of this (or any other election). Socialism is not taking over our country (any Socialist will tell that a 35% top marginal tax rate is a long, long, long way from a socialist economic system; further, socialism is purely economic - socialism will take on capitalism; democracy would be challenged by fascism). All of our individual freedoms aren't being taken away (if you want power, why waste time trying to sneakily do it through successive elections with a fickle electorate, as opposed to utilizing the most advanced and lethal military force ever known to man). The end of the world is not coming - the Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years, and will be here for many billion years after we leave; the Sun will continue to warm our planet long after we're all gone. As much as we think an election changes things, much stays the same, and life on this planet rolls along with an indifference to many of our human concerns. Maintaining perspective through these processes would be a nice goal for our country.
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Along the lines of things staying the same - after the gobs of money spent on this election, we end up with President Obama still in the White House, the Republicans still controlling the House of Representatives, and the Democrats still controlling the Senate. Immediately following the election, there were many calling (some calling again) for the need for bi-partisanship between the parties to find solutions to many of the economic woes in this country. And while I think bi-partisanship is great, I think we can quickly fall into the trap of expecting bi-partisanship from the other party, but fail to expect it from our own (rather, we decry that they "caved" on such and such issue). Richard Mourdock, a Senate candidate in Indiana, stated (among his many interesting sayings), that he "doesn't think we need more bi-partisanship in Washington," and that in his view, bi-partisanship consists of Democrats coming to Republican point of views. I pick on Mourdock because I remember these quotes, but I don't believe he is the only person in his party to believe this, nor is the Democrat Party void of similar thinking. But I think this highlights that problem with hoping for bi-partisanship after an election. There are many people who don't think there should be any negotiation on a variety of issues. There are people who believe that one party or the other is wrong on every important issue. I think we forget that many of us don't really want to negotiate, but we expect it at times from our leaders. In such situations, bi-partisanship doesn't seem possible.
Also, particular in light of the present political climate in this country, we may be thinking that accomplishing bi-partisanship is easier than it really is. Looking at the electoral map and the margins of victory in the states, it is easy to see that this is a deeply divided country. There may be very little President Obama can do to garner any support and appreciation in deep Red states like Georgia or Alabama. There may be nothing a Republican presidential candidate could have done to get support in strong Blue states like New York or Oregon. Bi-partisanship may be the lofty ideal that so many of say that we want; but until we allow our party representatives to compromise and understand that compromise, rather the being critical, it feels like such a pipe-dream.
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There's much more that could be written I suppose, and much by folks much smarter than me. But as I sit and think about the election, the results, and all the commentary just one day after, I truly think gaining better perspective on the actual impact of these things would be beneficial. Life will always just roll along, with or without us.
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