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What to do? What to do?
I keep thinking about what Bill Murray was saying in the locker room after the Cubs finally won the World Series. He was talking about how long they had been those lovable losers and now, he hoped, they would be good winners. The people in my personal echo chamber have been good winners for the past eight years. We have been steeped in all manner of Supreme Court decisions and health care and a First Family that made us all believe in hope and change. Those of us who live within the sound of my voice have been happy and content, lulled into the belief that things would just continue to roll along the way it had. Four, eight, twelve more years? Why not? The world was starting to make sense.
That came to an abrupt halt late Tuesday night. The dream of a steady climb through the progressive agenda hit a snag. More of an iceberg, actually. At this point there is no way of telling just how much of the work that has been done over the past eight years. Or more. Pending legislation with a Republican majority in Congress and the potential of one or more new justices added to the Supreme Court makes the deck stacked solidly in their favor. And now it's probably time to address this whole "us and them" thing. E Pluribus Unum: out of many, one. We may not like the one that we have become, but that is why we can all start thinking about how we got here in the first place. We are a nation of immigrants, and we have as many ideas about how the country should be run as we do citizens. About fifty-seven percent of the eligible voters showed up at the polls this year. If any of that missing forty-three percent feels like complaining, please ask them to start with the issues at hand, like what voter turnout can do to affect election results.
I get why people are apathetic. Back in 2008. there was this clear choice, and all sixty-one percent of us showed up to make our voices heard. We don't have to wait four years, by the way. There will be mid-term elections in 2018. There will be countless opportunities to share your views and make sure that you can participate in our Democracy. It's not a spectator sport, folks, and I am as guilty as anyone for not doing enough to rile others up enough to get out there and make a difference. I liked the way we were heading before that big orange iceberg jumped up in front of us. The sad fact is this: That big orange iceberg was there all along and while we were busy shuffling the deck chairs on our ship of state, nobody was going up to see who was steering the boat.
Now we have work to do. Real work. This is an opportunity to get in the game. Watching for the relative safety of the sidelines is no longer good enough. Support those causes that need to be funded. Speak up when you hear someone heading down that narrow path. We can make America great again, but it will take all of us, not just the "winners."