With the country so polarized as it heads into the 2020 election, it is wise to remember what, we as Americans, can all agree on. No matter where you stand on any particular issue or what your party affiliation, if you love this country and its ideals, then you want what’s best for it. We can easily disagree on policy and process. That’s both the beauty and frustration in a democracy. In my lifetime, I have had profound disagreements with both my fellow citizens and the government over civil rights, Vietnam, and gender equality just to name a few. Most recently, I disagreed with Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld about the wisdom of invading Iraq and Afghanistan. While I was proven right (so far) about the folly of those invasions, I hoped at the time I was wrong. I take no joy in being right. It has been a costly two decades with no end in sight.
It is easy to see our differences. But in a democracy, we must also remember our commonalities. First and foremost is that Donald Trump drives most people crazy. By crazy, I don’t mean QAon crazy but rather irrational to the point of not recognizing one’s own self-interest. Every tweet and speech from Trump drives liberals so nuts that the term Trump Derangement Syndrome was invented. Trump supporters love every minute of it. They love it so much that they ignore threats to themselves such as the economic devastation to farmers caused by the trade war with China. Trumpists take great delight in anything that upsets “libtard snowflakes.” They remind me of neighbors laughing at the guy who burned his house down trying to get rid of a wasp nest with a home-made flamethrower. They laughed so hard at the neighbor’s stupidity that they fail to recognize that the fire hurt them as well. The destroyed house drags everyone’s property values down. Derangement, it turns out, is a two-way street.
It seems to me that any rational person should admit that every single president has done both good and bad things in their tenure. Honest appraisal also dictates that it is history and the perspective of time that sorts the chaff from the wheat when judging presidential administrations. Exhibit A is my Trump-loving father-in-law who now says that Bill Clinton did a pretty good job. This, despite the fact that he railed against Clinton, calling him, “The worst president ever” during Clinton’s impeachment. He bases his revisionist view on the economy. Like most Americans, he gives presidents way too much credit or blame for the economy. And like most Americans, he makes most voting decisions based on his pocketbook. Ever since the Hoover/ Roosevelt years, presidents get credit or blame for the economy deserved or not. Perception and emotion drive his vote rather than facts or research.
If you truly love this country and what it stands for, it is a good time to drop partisanship and remember that we are all in this together. Democracy is messy business and politicians often play us against each other to gain power. We can hold on to our beliefs while still respecting other opinions. The real strength in any democracy is diversity of opinion coupled with shared values. We grow weaker when we attack each other on the basis of different viewpoints.
Liberals have long supported drastic change and ignoring tradition. Religion, marriage, gender issues, sexuality, and abortion are just a few of societal traditions that Liberals have worked to overturn. But now that Trump is ignoring traditions right and left, they are howling mad. Conservatives have had as a bedrock principle of preventing to prevent the Executive branch from gaining too much power for almost a century. But they ignore Liberal distrust of Trump’s expansion of Executive Privilege. Liberals like government supervision, but fear Trump. Conservatives despise government overreach but welcome Trump’s “leadership.” Liberals turned their heads while Conservatives grumbled about Obama’s use of drones to kill hundreds without transparent oversight. Now the situation is reversed and so are the criticisms.
What Trump has done well and what he has done poorly is a matter on which reasonable people can disagree and only history will decide. For example, it is important, practical, and patriotic to debate whether Trump’s assassination of Iranian General Soleimani is a good or bad idea. No matter what side one takes in the argument, short term and long-term effects of the killing will not be established for a long time. It is every American’s right and duty to engage in the question, but the term unpatriotic should not be thrown around by either side.
It is also patriotic and non-partisan to acknowledge the preponderance of evidence that Russia tried to interfere in US and European elections. The act of labeling that someone a Never-Trumper for accepting the facts and working to prevent such activity in the future is dangerous to our democracy. It is both fallacious and fatuous to substitute name-calling, alternative facts, and wild conspiracy theories for real arguments. It is selfish and unpatriotic to ignore reality and the omnipresent dangers to our democracy.
I think that there’s enough hypocrisy on both sides to replace the Constitution with Dictionary.com’s entry on irony. The 2020 election, like most national elections, is too important to be left to the emotional whims of the electorate. Schadenfreude is not a good reason to vote for or against someone. Disagreement over candidates or policy is not a good reason to like or hate someone. Or question their patriotism. It is the very pinnacle of irrational thinking and behavior. We’ve had ample sufficiency of that in our lifetimes don’t you think? Harken back to Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Iraq War if you need a reminder. Let’s try reason and common interests for a change in this next election. Our very democracy may rest on our choice. And that is something that leading Conservatives and Liberals both agree on.
