Welp, here we are again. The last time this happened, I posted on Facebook about figuring out how to respond to the situation with love. I did a shitty job of that. But whichever way individual Americans voted, or even if they didn’t vote at all, we have made our collective bed and now must lie in it.
The election results came as no surprise to me. I knew when I voted I was voting for a lost cause. Because condescension doesn’t build constituencies. But it damn sure builds anger and backlash. And basing a campaign on “joy” and on telling people the economy is doing great when people are dying from opioid overdoses every day and families are staring down eggs at $6.59 a dozen and chicken breasts at $7.59 a pound is ludicrous.
Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state explains it much better than I could. We do need more real working people in government. Representatives do need to focus more on outcomes for the people they represent than on party loyalty.
We Americans think of ourselves as roll-up-our-sleeves, get-shit-done, pitch-in-when-people-are-in-need types. And for the most part, we are. When a tree lands on a neighbor’s car or blocks a road because of storm, you can be damn sure someone will quickly show up with a chainsaw. When people are flooded or burned out of their homes, brigades of trucks from hundreds of miles away will arrive, packed with food, water, clothing, baby formula, diapers, medicines, sleeping bags, and whatever else anyone can think of that might be immediately helpful.
But historically, we haven’t shown that kind of love for our fellow citizens on a daily basis, absent some urgent disaster or enormous, unifying crisis. Our story began with slave-holding founding fathers and marched through periods of violent xenophobia, racism, misogyny, seizure and exploitation of land, resources, and people, plus greed, corruption, conflicts of interest, and gross inequality, from Gilded Age robber barons to billionaire Silicon Valley tech bros.
Americans are good at selective memory, bathing our history in the buttery light of a Norman Rockwell painting or “morning in America” nostalgia. We used to at least try to make sure we said hateful things only when we were out of earshot of those we hate.
Love for our fellow citizens has been very visibly absent over the past eight or nine years, and I’m not just talking about the most extreme examples of hate crimes and police brutality, or even the run-of-the mill racism and misogyny that were recently on display at Madison Square Garden.
I’m also talking about the pervasive condescension, contemptuousness, and disdain that those on the lefter side of the political spectrum have shown toward tens of millions of their fellow citizens. Those citizens made it clear on November 5 that they’ve had enough.
I’m positive that millions of people who voted for the winner of our presidential election did so holding their noses, with their fingers crossed, hoping they were going to get a better future out of it, and relying on their votes in favor of reproductive rights and ticket-splitting down-ballot selections to balance things out. I’m still hopeful that the ticket-splitting will preserve a wisp of balance in the House vs. the Senate.
But I’m sorry for those who voted for the winner, hoping to improve their situation–um, ‘fraid not: I’m pretty sure that the leopard you voted for is, in fact, going to eat your face.
About halfway through the six seasons of the TV series Northern Exposure, which ran from 1990 to 1995 and recently became available for streaming, there was an episode about democracy. It was so resonant for our current situation that I wrote about it. The bottom line was that voting is an exceptional privilege, not to be undertaken lightly, and win or lose, when the dust settles, we all must get down to business and work together to, yes, get shit done.
It’s weird how words from the past, even very deep in the past, can be so relevant in the present. I’ve been slowly trying to get through The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and found this passage (from the George Long translation, emphasis mine):
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not (only) of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in (the same) intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him. For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away.
These past few days I’ve been very vexed and very tempted to turn away. I just wanted to crawl under the covers and stay there. Or sit outside by my little bonfire and toss back a few.
But instead of hiding out, what I think I really have to do is start saying the things I think I’m not allowed to say as a person of the Democratic party persuasion, and encourage others to do so, too. I’ve even considered changing my party affiliation to Independent. This pendulum we’re on has swung way too wide in both directions for me, and I want to slow that thing down and ride it back toward the middle, where most of us could talk to each other with civility and respect, even if we disagree.
Fantasizing about founding a new political party called “Moderate Independents for Sanity and Civility”–HA! the “Misc.” party!–I remain,
Your pick-yourself-up, dust-yourself-off, and start-all-over-again,
Ridiculouswoman
The problem with becoming an Independent is that you don’t get to vote in the Primaries, and the Primaries (usually) give us our choices in November.
You got your story from Marcus Aurelius. I got one from a story in the New Testament. In the verses about the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate tried to save Jesus by offering to free one prisoner for Passover. He let the crowd choose, but the prisoner he picked was Barabbas, a notorious robber who had committed murder during an insurrection. (Kind of like the con man who was responsible for cops dying in the insurrection he led.)
Anyhow, when the crowd made their choice as to which one to free, they shouted, “Give us, Barabbas.”
I guess we didn’t learn our lesson from history, and now we are doomed to repeat it.
I was wondering about that independent/primary thing. Somehow I was thinking that Independents could choose either ballot (as long as they only chose one). Might have to reconsider!
Your spot on again Cousin. It’s been hard to get motivated… again -but we must march on.
History shows that every few cycles those who feel all is not well with our country focus on just a few things and call for a reversal in the American Way. So I guess we must let them “try it” again. When it doesn’t work we can refocus and move forward especially as we try to save this planet for our children and grandchildren….so Let’s keep the faith – Meanwhile I’ll choose Joy in my every day connections the best that I can. And hold onto Hope for a better world.
I always like your messages and I LOVE this one. ❤️🩹
Thanks – glad you’re enjoying my blog. We’re in for another chaotic ride, but if we can’t talk to each other instead of at each other, we’re screwed.
I wasn’t surprised by the election results either. But what we are not saying about ourselves is that as Americans we want something for nothing.
Local grocery stores, drug stores, shops, corner gas stations, newspapers, hospitals, medical practices, most restaurants, banks, hardware stores, ect have become a thing of the past. Monopolies and private equity are how business is run and people have allowed this to happen because we want more and not less.
Progress is seen as bigger, more efficient and climate change is an illusion; think AI that eats electricity. It is true that technology had improved lives but as humans we are a bit greedy and want the newest and latest because, well, we just do.
I don’t know if it has been the price of eggs or the price of chips, pop and alcohol that caused some people to push the straight ticket R. Food has been cheap for a long time and our landfills prove it! And that goes for clothing too. And if an older person wants to downsize, well, my house may cost more than its worth but so is the smaller one I might prefer.
Shame on US!!!