Whom you vote for is none of anyone else’s business.
That’s not what this is about.
Evidenced by the conversations surfaced this week in Washington D.C., and all media across the country, half of those who did vote felt they’ve been holding their tongue for the past two elections, and Wednesday morning when they woke up they could breathe for the first time in eight years.
The other half of voters now feel they will lose hard fought rights. For them, the morning after election day and every day since, they’ve taken to the streets in protest.
That’s what this is about. We need to keep doing these things – speaking our minds, out loud.
A few days before the election, Van Jones, political commentator for CNN, for his ‘
The Messy Truth’ episodes, visited white voters in Gettysburg, Penn. He asked how they thought we got to the point where disagreement is the equivalent of hostile warfare.
“I’m just worried now, just concerned,” Jones said. “So are we,” the Gettysburg dad said.
Jones and the Gettysburg folks are all right: we must learn how to talk and listen to each other.
Debate in this country used to be different. At home around the dinner table, on television, radio, and in print news, we had valuable arguments – not quarrels – with information from people we knew, and cared about, even trusted to help us make informed opinions. We need those real conversations, even (and especially) when they get heated, with people who matter. It’s crucial to understanding each other. There are not enough places where this still happens. We need to fix that. Now.
A long-running debate show,
Intelligence Squared, circulated a petition before and during the debates pleading with the Commission on Presidential Debates for the chance to host meaningful discourse. Its plea fell on deaf ears.
Instead, we devolved into a Saturday Night Live Point/Counterpoint parody skit from the 1970s hurling ‘
Jane, you ignorant slut’ comments at each other.
The cavalry is not coming. We need to fix this together and we need each other to do it. All of each other, not just the half who decided to show up on election day.
Voting is how we express our will. Protesting is how we express our will. Communicating with each other in a productive way is how we express our will.
It’s not the job of politicians to tell us what is important. With our votes, we hire them to spend our money, to exercise our will, and to protect our nation. If we’re unclear about how we want them to wield that power we will not get the results we want; not in the laws or policies we need, and ultimately the power with which we entrust them can be, and often is abused.
And for many voters that abuse occurs at the hands of people they did not select to represent them.
And it’s more than ‘if you didn’t vote you don’t have a right to complain.’ We need everyone’s voice in these decisions. Abstention is not an option.
This cycle, as in so many recent elections, the president-elect does not have a mandate. He lost the popular vote. He is unique in that he is arguably neither a Republican or a Democrat, as he has held all sides on every major position. His leadership path is not clear. With neither a mandate nor clear path of motive and intent, we risk being abused.
Our government works because it is a system under tension. That’s how it was designed. When we respect that tension and each other, government works best. It’s never been easy. But that’s OK. It is our strength, not our weakness.
Conservatives worry about liberty: liberals worry about justice. Minorities worry about the empowerment of hate groups; majorities worry about their loss of identity. Some see these as swinging pendulums. They are more like bulldozers pushing against each other.
It does not serve the greater good to lie or deceive each other about how much fuel is in the tank and when we last serviced the engines.
I’ve tried very hard in the last week to find my power in this moment. My strengths include research and writing. It’s a small thing, but I feel like we – or at least I – need some baby steps toward sincere and honest communication right now.
The reasons each of us made the choice we did were complicated and complex. My bias, for the record and from my heart, is here: I see too much Federal government intervention; I am monumentally fiscally conservative; I am extremely socially liberal; I am concerned about protecting the environment; and I am against continued use of the United States Military as the police force for the world, funded by Americans. And, I am a woman.
I understand that my personal convictions filter my view of the world.
And now, in this moment, the first woman for president was nominated by a major party, the only other major party nominee declared he would shake up the government with allegiance to no establishment but his own, and the only viable third party candidate (on the ballot in all 50 states) was sorely underfunded, undersupported, and some say unprepared for a real shot at winning.
It was a difficult choice.
Now, watching everyone beat themselves and each other up is painful and depressing.
As I work through identifying what and how I will participate civically for the next few years I’ve added a page to my blog for links to websites whose contributors are working to help clean up our resources. Some are my go-to sites which have held up since journalism classes. Others are new sites whose admins are working right now to help make our discourse more transparent.
But there’s so much more work to do.
Peace for now,
Reb
P.S. And if you didn’t (or don’t) vote, it’s time to step up. It’s your civic responsibility.
We needed you this time and you let us down.
