CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE SOMERS RECORD (11-19-20)- Please remember small business in your town during this coronavirus pandemic

     After this election I'm completely drained and exhausted, and not in the good way like when I say, "wow, that was great," and light up a cigarette even though I don't smoke. It's more like, "wow, I feel cheap and used, and I need a shower right now," even though I don't smoke. It's been four years of utter divisiveness, and I'd like to start liking people again who don't agree with me, and that covers a large swath of humanity. I've never had this problem before. I've never been a political person, and I'd rather not be one now. I've voted for republicans, I don't consider myself particularly liberal, and I have a general distrust of everyone who lies to me, regardless of their party affiliation. But there are some problems with our system of government that have become glaringly apparent, and I'd like to make fun of them now.

     The two-party system of government seems to be kind of a failure. Since the Supreme Court ruling in "Citizens United v the FEC," corporations have been allowed to pour money into our electoral system and cloud the results. MacDonald's could very well be electing our next president, and it could be Mayor McCheese. With only two parties to choose from, issues that I don't espouse are being piled onto the platform way too close to me. What if I'm in favor of fiscal responsibility but not in favor of doing nothing about climate change? What if I don't accept racism but don't like illegal immigration either? It's like choosing from a Chinese restaurant menu where I order General Tso's chicken and have to accept nuts that I never heard of along with it. By the way, if I were a general in an army I wouldn't appreciate everybody knowing I was chicken and hung around with a bunch of nuts. All I'm saying is that If I had only two parties to choose from in college I would have perished 30 years ago.

     Speaking of colleges I couldn't get into, the Electoral College seems like an institution whose time might have come. It was invented to give a bit more weight to less populous states who couldn't compete with big cities in the popular vote. But it's come to bestow outsized powers to rural areas susceptible to nutty theories and fringe groups. I'm not sure I want my president elected by the people who live in Area 51, and I hear the people in Area 52 are sick to death of them, too.

     Remember when Reagan said, "Tear down that wall!" Or George W. Bush said into a bullhorn, "The rest of the world hears you," or when Daniel Day-Lewis said, "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds!" Okay, he wasn't actually a president but he did play Lincoln in a movie. When something bad (or good) happens in America or in the world, I expect the president to stand at the podium and say something intelligent and meaningful. I hope that will happen again.

     Remember when your mother said you had to eat your vegetables and go to the dentist? She didn't do that to make herself popular in the polls. She did it because she loves you, and knew that someday after your braces were off you'd smile straighter at her. That's the same thing leaders do if they're really on their game: they make us do things, like wear a mask in the middle of a pandemic, that might be inconvenient, but have long-term positive consequences beyond this week's news cycle. Maybe the restrictions are going too far, but I can't help thinking that if people embraced the masks in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess. I hate "gaiter-hair" as much as you do, but it's where we are right now.

     Remember when I had my rotator cuff surgery? Yes you do, because you heard me crying in pain all the way inside your house. I'm lucky: I have a good medical plan at work, and I can't complain about my health, although others have complained about it. But when the doctor says you need a test and they send you to the lab, no one can tell you in advance what it's going to cost. And the price varies so widely around the country for the same procedure that you barely know how to proceed. I'm not sure I like the word "socialism," but I don't like the word "bankruptcy" either. I don't know what the answer to health care is, but I know that doing nothing is going to cost us all more in the end, regardless of which end we're paying through.

     Remember when politicians used to compromise? Neither do I. But they used to at least SAY they did, leading people to believe that conceding a few crumbs to the other side and actually getting something done was a virtue. Imagine that. I know I'm just an average guy, not particularly bright, and that's why I value people who are. Doctors, scientists, physicists, people who spent their life learning about things that make the world run. Even if I'm not the smartest guy in the world, I'm smart enough to know what I don't know.