The Morning After

Here’s one thing most of us have in common: We’ll be glad when this election is over.

Here’s another: We’re worried about who will be our next president. But now that I’ve cast my early vote, it’s pretty much out of my hands, and I’m trying to look at this as an opportunity to practice “letting go.”

Now, however, reading angry, sometimes hateful posts on social media, my concerns revolve around what’s going to happen after the election. This recent article in The Huffington Post: “I Didn’t Unfriend You Over Politics,” didn’t make me feel any better:

Here’s an excerpt:

“…I cannot and will not be friends with people who think that we should be directing resources toward conversion therapy, for people “suffering” from homosexuality (like Pence). I will not be friends with people who think that it is okay to subject black people to practices that were deemed unconstitutional, because they deprived them of the very civil liberties our Constitution was intended to protect (like Trump). I will not be friends with people who think that those who subscribe to Islam are any less deserving of love, respect, or refuge than their Christian counterparts. I will not be friends with people who think that it is morally sound to indiscriminately murder the children of terrorists. Nor will I be friends with people who speak ill of immigrants, when without immigrants, none of us would even be here.”

Being a Republican, I probably have more friends and family members voting for Trump than are voting for Clinton, but I know for a fact, they no more believe in everything Trump says and does than I believe in everything Clinton says and does. So I can hardly (nor do I wish to) disown or unfriend them solely for who they support. Personally, I think it’s damaging to suggest we do so. (I have, however, unfriended a few for their ugly disrespect expressed for simple disagreement.)

If you google “two worst candidates in history,” you’ll find a plethora of articles, which leads me to assume this is another thing upon which most of us agree–these are the two worst candidates in history.

In the fivethirtyeight.com article, “Americans’ Distaste for Both Trump and Clinton is Recordbreaking,” author Harry Enten states:

No major party nominee before Clinton or Trump had a double-digit net negative “strong favorability” rating. Clinton’s would be the lowest ever, except for Trump.

Each of our life histories, values, concerns and priorities are unique and have coalesced into who we’ve decided to support. That certainly doesn’t mean the decision has been easy, or even firm. I’ll bet that’s something else many of us who are currently on “opposite sides of the fence” have shared.

I believe our polarization and divisiveness is more damaging to our country than anyone who is elected president. “Letting go” and coming together will be a huge challenge, because the way the polls look now, no matter who is elected, 1/2 the country will be at least disappointed, some shocked and angry.

This divisiveness is passed right along to Congress, which brings our government to a standstill because after all, they all want to be re-elected. This is goes on…and on…and on because of:

• no compromise attitudes – when did compromise become a bad thing?
• spineless, feather-in-the-wind senators and representatives who toss their values and beliefs aside for the sake of re-election.
• an attitude of wanting to do whatever possible to make the next president a failure.
• the weight of their “labels.” (I’m a Republican/Democrat, so I have to vote this way.)

And the indications are it’s only going to continue, regardless of who wins the presidency.

This post, more than most I’ve written, is hard for me to consolidate and conclude. But thank you to my friend, Janet Webb, for her concise Facebook post yesterday. She said in few words what I’ve tried to say in this post.

Admittedly, my verbosity is due in large part to my difficulty in coming to my conclusion, but here it is:

I will support whoever is elected president.

There is a caveat, of course, which is, I will support him/her barring conviction of any crimes. Sadly, the likelihood of this happening with either candidate is not so far-fetched.

We must come together on the morning after. We are all Americans and we want the best for our country, though we may not agree on what that is or how to get there. But again, what happened to compromise?

In closing, here’s one more thing we can all agree on:

We cannot continue to be one nation, if we remain so divided.