You Should Care Way Less About Election Night
Instead, care about the one thing in this world that really matters: your character
At the writing of this piece, the date is November 2nd, 2020 — the eve of (what I’m told) is the most important presidential election of our lifetimes. Well technically, as voice of reason and fellow Jelly Belly hater, Jonah Goldberg, often reiterates, the election has been going on for a while now with all the early and mail-in voting stuff. It seems that about half the country at this point has already submitted a vote for, in all likelihood, one of the two septuagenarians drooling it out for commander-in-chief. But as the concept is both the largely understood narrative and a personally convenient rhetorical tool, we’ll stick with the ‘eve of the election’ thing.
I feel fairly confident in saying that the last four years, and 2020 especially, have been fraught. In review, the list of maladies visited upon this country (and the West more broadly) have been qualitatively and quantitatively astounding. It feels as if we’re collectively going through something of a Snakes on a Plane moment. A moment in which we’re trapped in a metal tube hurtling through the troposphere and venomous serpents of all sizes, shapes, and fang size, having been intentionally released and trained to inflict maximum damage, are nipping at our ankles, falling from the overheads, and hiding in our luggage ready to bite us in the face.
Legitimate grievances coupled with the never-not-shockingly-divisive way in which President Trump ‘communicates’ and holds office has, naturally, drawn people into trading in the type of hyperbole that makes ‘this the most important election in American history.’ It’s the kind of overstatement that implores an understanding that ‘we’re fighting for our democracy’ or that if we’re not careful we could ‘let fascism (or communism, take your pick) walk right through the door.’
And I get it, hyperbole works — just ask the current President of the United States. A tonally dire Instagram or Facebook post, however factually dubious and morally misguided, is hugely effective in conveying urgency and accumulating a vocal coalition of like-minded people. Both sides of the partisan aisle, each made so manic by the other side’s increased escalation of rhetoric, regularly engage in this type of behavior.
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY) tweets something imbecilic and nakedly Marxist about, let’s say, the economy, conservatives will bristle. When the president, for all the reasons a pathological narcissist might, refuses to make the layup of all layups and confirm White Nationalism is, like, bad, liberals and progressives rightfully go a little cuckoo. Orwellian thought policing on the side of the political left, jingoistic and deeply counterproductive nationalism on the side of the political right, and bi-partisan fear-mongering were a recipe for unrest the likes of which we see in Portland and New York.
The TL;DR of that preamble is that embellishment of the truth or even downright distortion of the facts as they are presented so as to gain cultural leverage is understandable when each side needles the other into nothing short of mania. Not right and not at all moral, but intellectually understandable.
But I have good news for you — it doesn’t have to be this way. The reality is this: you make your own lunch. You mow your own front yard. You are the one who is in charge of your character, the type of person you’d like to be, and how you move through the world as an individual in a community. You have the distinct and singular autonomy to decide how you live your life. The president doesn’t have anything to do with that. Not a thing. It’s my belief that you have a moral imperative to be the best person you can be, positively impacting the people around you with kindness, honesty, and love, all the while building towards a future in which respect and human decency are held up as the highest human virtues. But, hey, if you want to go the Hunter Biden or Donand Trump Jr route, go ahead just keep it between the lines.
The point is, whoever becomes president tomorrow (just kidding, I don’t think we’re gonna get that lucky), will affect you zero-percent. Or at least it should affect you zero-percent. Save for a few major scenarios — nuclear war, ongoing COVID-19 remediation, first pitches at Nationals games — not you nor I should spend any time thinking about the President of the United States because nothing will change from November 3rd to November 4th. The federal government will continue to borrow more money than it could ever pay back. It will still be held completely unaccountable for the ways in which it uses the money it garners from you in the form of taxes. Every politician in Congress and the Senate will continue to try and outdo each other in who can be more self-serving and ineffectual. Foreign military campaigns, some of which we know about and most of which we don’t, will continue to generate money for some and heartbreak for others. The DMV will still be a thing and, yes, so will the Post Office.
When viewed from a policy standpoint, the most dangerous person in American history was woefully unsuccessful in bringing about or putting into action anything truly impactful to the majority of Americans. Not that it matters to his sycophants, but the man simply did not do nearly any of the things that he promised he would do if he got elected. When it comes to the books and getting laws on them, Trump was a failure. Any change, positive or negative, that occurred in your life didn’t come from federal policy pushed through by a toothless Trump executive branch.
There is a legitimate argument— and an argument with which I agree to an extent— that the president can help set the tone for the nation. Donald Trump has been very, very bad at setting the tone for the nation. But he’s not responsible for setting the tone of your household. He doesn’t have any say in how you treat your neighbors— neither does Joe Biden, nor Jo Jorgensen, nor Elmo for that matter. You’re in charge of your character.
The only existential threat you should be worried about is that of your own overreaction to a thing that doesn’t make one ounce of difference in how you comport yourself on this day and in the days to come.
