In less than two-weeks we may (or may not) elect a U.S. President. We should use this time to mentally prepare ourselves for the difficult job of being both a grown-up, and a member of the loyal opposition.
In the early morning hours of November 8, 2016, I was not particularly surprised. For at least nine months I had been telling my employees that Donald Trump would win the presidency. I based this assessment on three things: One, Mrs. Clinton was (and is) very difficult to like outside the Washington, D.C. to Manhattan corridor where she is all but worshiped as a goddess. Two, her supposed "credentials" were tainted by the email scandal, and as a result - she ended up looking conniving, waspish, and amateurish to anyone who's ever had to handle other people's money and/or information for a living. And finally - three; she had acted from day one like she'd already been elected. American voters love confidence in their candidates, but they are not too keen on arrogance. That alone was sufficient to turn-off half the states.
What did surprise me however, was later in the morning of November 8, 2016; and that was the utter vitriol and despair displayed by the loosing side. I have gone through many an election in my day; several with people of whom I was personally friendly and/or acquainted. No matter how bad the thrashing, I would have never behaved as many did, by unburdening myself via the expedient of unbridled hysterical froth.
Considering the dynamics of 2016, I might have expected some abase juvenility; perhaps an escalation of the chicanery exhibited in 2001 when the outgoing (and loosing - by way of Al Gore) Clinton transition team trashed the White House to the tune of $15,000 in damages (as reported by the Los Angeles Times). To his credit, young George Bush issued a memo to staff that forbade any such nonsense when he departed (as reported by the Christian Science Monitor) and the same was true when Mr. Obama left office (as reported by The Washington Post). Grown-ups, both of them.
That said, whereas I would have thought such behavior juvenile, I would not have been surprised. Had some of President Obama's disgruntled staffers disregarded his directive and committed some petty vandalism in light of their disappointment, it would have been stupid, but certainly not evil as my father would say.
Would that have been the case. Had we encountered a brief lapse in judgement, or even a mild tantrum of sophomoric vexation, we might have found some common ground at the end of it. Instead what we got was a complete abandonment of the greatest tenant in representative government; the establishment of a loyal opposition.
This trend died somewhere in the late 90s I think. The last President who made any effort to actually govern within the lines of the presidency and to negotiate in good faith with Congress, was Bill Clinton. Young George Bush attempted it somewhat, but clumsily (as is often the case with wartime presidents) and poor Mr. Obama (who I always thought would have make an excellent Prime Minister but a terrible president) was utterly lost, as vividly described in Bob Woodward's book: The Price of Politics.
But nothing could have prepared our republic for what unfolded in 2016. Parades of women in hats representing their genitalia and claiming that the president was not "their" president. An impeachment, endless investigations, utter hysteria, and most of all, faithlessness in accepting the results of an election. And the House of Representatives through all this, true to their role as the "chamber of the people" did nothing whatsoever to diffuse the situation but rather, exacerbated it.
Now I understand somewhere along the way the American electorate has lost track of the fact that California and New York (states one and four in population size) cannot elect the president by virtue of shear force-of-will; that an electoral college is in place to prevent the tyranny of popular democracy. (Think of it as a golf or bowling handicap if you will.) Likewise the concept of a senate where all the states are equal in representation and not subjected to the will of 51% of the population. But honestly people. Grow-up!
And on the other side, if Joe Biden is elected president in two weeks, grass is not going to grow in the streets. When Thomas Jefferson was elected, the Federalists claimed (and seemingly believed) that blood would flow and that the nation would collapse. That election was in 1800 and guess what folks - we're still here.
Personally, I feel the tension between statists and federalists cannot endure for much longer. Personally I feel the United States (as we have known it) has run its course in history, and we need to cash-in our chips and end the poker game peacefully like ladies and gentlemen, not like 1880's Western banditti. But that process starts with reason and maturity, something we are in short supply of in 2020. So here are a ten things we can do in November (December, January...) to show each other that we are truly worthy of living in a republic:
Congratulate a friend who's candidate has won: A call or text will do; or perhaps post a congratulatory meme on social media for all to see.
Keep an open-mind. Living in a free society means listening as well as sniping.
Find three positive things to say about whoever wins.
Plan for helping your party strengthen their position via positive actions and ideas not merely objecting to the opposition.
Avoid name-calling and personal attacks at all costs; tolerance is a two-way street.
Critique actions and initiatives not motives. Few people can categorically know anyone's motive for anything. The best one can do is speculate, and speculation is at best flawed and at worst, dead wrong.
Be respectful. Just because a person believes in something different from you does not mean they are an idiot or worthy of your ire. Informed or not.
Love the office if not the occupant. The office of The President of the United States is the greatest ever devised by political science. And unless you have had to make decisions for 380,000,000 people every five-seconds for four-years, you should probably think a bit before you point fingers and make accusations.
Let history do its work. It is nearly impossible to assess a president's performance while they are in office. Harry Truman (for one) would certainly agree with me on this.
Remember every election has a winner and a looser. What comes around - goes around, and political karma is the most controllable karma of all.
And finally - be safe, be sound and be a good American. Our republic depends on it.
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