Some Election Day Thoughts

This has been the most interesting election cycle I've been a part of it and it has nothing to do with who is running or about anything that has happened along the way. Rather - I have kids who can understand, at least at some level, what is going on. Just yesterday, my daughter came home from volleyball practice and sat down next to me and said she was nervous. I asked her "why sweetie? what's making you nervous." She said, "well, I see a lot more Harris/Walz signs around here than Trump signs and I'm scared about what will happen." She knows we voted to 'orange man bad' and so that's the reason for her observation. So I asked her a follow-up question, "A_____, how will your life change based on the result of this election?" She sat there for a minute thinking - "Not at all, dad." I said, "exactly right, you don't have to worry about this election because mom and I will deal with whatever consequences may come, and you know what, even for us things aren't likely to change all that much."

We make a big deal every four years about WHO the president will be, but in reality, who the president is doesn't really change our lives all that much. I'm not saying that elections don't have consequences, they surely do but, by and large, change happens incrementally, and even when some economic woe is ascribed to this person or that party, even then, it's not that simple. Inflation, for example, which we have all experienced the consequences of, is a multi-faceted thing with many various causes. One of those causes was the oodles of 'free money' the government gave away. Trump did it first, Biden doubled down. Another cause is the Russia/Ukraine war, which is the fault of none of the candidates, even though Trump loves to say that Russia would have never invaded Ukraine if he had been president, which may be true, but we'll never know.

I was thinking on the way to work this morning - we really do have WAY more in common than we have disagreement over. We all love our children, almost all of us love this country, we all want to be able to provide for our families and enjoy the rights of being able to worship as we choose. What we disagree about is the role of government in those areas: are my children my responsibility to raise, or does the government play a part in that? Should people who come to this country from other countries be allowed in while they wait for visas/legal proceedings or should we be turning people away at the border, and encouraging them to wait to enter this country through legal channels? Should a woman be able to have an abortion whenever she chooses to or should there be guardrails on that, understanding as we all do that life is precious? Do we want to live in a society that has equality of outcomes or equality of opportunity? How do we enact public policies that maximally benefit the public but also take into account the varied beliefs of our diverse citizenry? These are questions around the role of government.

At minimum, we love our children, we love our country, and we value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. On these things - we share much common ground, no matter our view of policy. I really appreciate Vivek Ramaswamy's approach to all of this, throughout this election cycle - he advocates for having reasonable discussions regarding government policy, but out in the open where we can first establish our common ground and then peacefully and reasonably examine the areas where we disagree...seeking to first see each as fellow Americans and fellow citizens of this great nation.

Don't know what will happen, but will be trying to keep these things in mind, no matter the result.