Please Vote Blue

Even though Trebuchet and Times are similar fonts, I opted to write this post in Trebuchet for its actual meaning. Those who don't know may look it up.  This is to launch ideas.  I'm adding this image by Jayme Odgers because I love it. Click on the image. 

Get about a foot from your monitor, then cross your eyes to make the images come together. It should become 3D! Cool...

I was amazed to be called 'demented' by one dear old pal and then there was another high school classmate asking (rhetorically?) if I was 'f***ing nuts' when I sent a "reply all" response to an email addressed to all of the participating members of my old high school class. I asked for whom they'd vote for president. I said I was voting blue. On looking up synonyms for 'demented'.. I found 'deranged' and have to admit that I'll cop to being an element to 'derange' or move around or change things now and then. 

On Facebook I sometimes post observations regarding the coming election. Some of my FB pals are so upset by what the current president has done to divide our country that they might weigh in with epithets that match the vitriol of my old high school republicans.  I just delete those comments because I think that this president is doing enough already to reveal himself. To me, chiming in with 'tit for tat' is a waste of energy.

Do I want Biden / Harris to lead our country back to compassion, some form of civil discourse and maybe even find a way to health in this time of crisis?  Yes.

Do I want for these old high school classmates... some of them are loyal and thoughtful.. for them to lose? To be losers? Absolutely not!

And, here's why.  The country has been deliberately divided .. I think.. all to boost the ego of one person.  How intelligent and educated people got pulled into this maelstrom is not hard to figure out.  It has to do with a phenomenon called 'Cognitive Dissonance'. Caps mine.. That's when we fall into a behavior that seems okay at the time: not harmful?  then, things change and that behavior may still seem like the right way to behave, but because of the change, it's not healthy or good for us. Republicans used to be conservative and for strong business practices (and for rich folks..).. Now.. the tenor of the times is not the same as before.

Some folks compare our current social scene to the Germany that bubbled up in the 1930s.  Germans had a strong and charismatic leader who wanted to cleanse the land of folks he did not like. A blustery presence.  He told half truths and lies that charmed the thoughtful upstanding Germans to turn on the Germans who were Jews and gay folks and thus began a reign of terror.   I'm not enough of a scholar to cite all of the steps that Hitler trod as he climbed to power. But.. the 'feeling' that may have permeated Germany is beginning to feel similar, at least in my imagination.. to what those good people fell for.  

Power.  

Power over those whose self defenses were overwhelmed because the charm of the leader made the majority want to expand power. 

Power is a rush! Ask me about "Private Life of the Master Race" Brecht has a way with words!

When I asked my former classmates whom they'd vote for in the election.. initially, I just wanted to see if the conservatism that I was aware of in the demeanor of many of these people was as conservative as they appeared to be several years ago.  Epithets and derision bloomed like anything!  I was just asking for Pete's Sake.

The really wonderful thing was that some of the classmates I polled contacted me privately to let me know that they see the issues that liberals are raising about the lack of empathy and the deliberate derision and division that's been going on for three years and pledged to Vote Blue.  Some of them are  even former supporters of 45 and were adamant  that it was time for change.  The business of sticking with a bad idea had fled!  To me, that is a good thing.

What about calling out these critics who opted to call me names and for some of them to demand that politics not be part of the communication that we all share as classmates? Truthfully, I'd totally forgotten how old we all are.  I'd forgotten that this cognitive dissonance of being firm in one's beliefs sticks strongest when you get older.  I still see the women as dewy cheerleaders and prom queens. The guys are football heroes and great wrestlers. We are all in Levi's and live surrounded by alfalfa and cows and sugar beets. In our high school hints of politics ran only to school elections.  One classmate (the president of our senior class!)  responded with research listing all the 'good' that 45 has done. He failed to mention thousands of children separated from their parents and the millions of dollars of tax payer monies for one golfing trip to Palm Beach.  Of course, Stormy Daniels and the grabbing issue is long swept under the table.

The scary part of what's been happening over three years' time is that the reputation of our formerly United States has taken a nose dive.  Braggadocio and hubris substitute for articulate speech. It's the inarticulate speech and seeing video of this president exiting Air Force One alone while his wife stands well behind on the steps leading out of the plane. This behavior shows a lack of courtesy that permeates his responses to even mild  questions in a press briefing. He insults reporters and in dismissing them, seldom gives a straight answer to a legitmate question. The man is constantly on the defensive. It's a shame.

Admittedly, I'm really not all that well informed. Sort of on purpose. I have learned a valuable lesson from a well informed conservative pal over the years.  With almost every supporter of 45 whom I've encountered and tried to have a discussion with, the old '"What about You?" retort is on the table.  Is that a 'strawman' response? It's endemic in many of the conservatives I know who are masters at changing the subject.  This is NOT to fault them for this technique.  This goes back to Cognitive Dissonance.. They just can't answer a direct question. They have trained themselves or been trained or are deeply ingrained with that response as a survival technique.  I tease an old pal of mine by saying that getting a straight answer from him is like nailing a Jello mold to the wall! He's good humored about it and that's probably the reason that we've been pals for so long.

Critical thinking and asking questions is vital in our current state of affairs: the dangers facing the USA.. Becoming the laughing stock of the world is pretty embarrassing.  Is our entire country running with the lemmings? 

Of course, we're all caught up in this dampanic.. er.. pandemic. Sometimes I forget that this depressing time, no matter whether it could have been dealt with sooner or not, we are in it.. and it's depressing and working in a really negative way on all of us. Senior citizens are frightened to go out for fear of contracting the virus. This means no visits with loved ones and family.. no social activities.. theatre, movies.. museums: gatherings with others. We missed a really wonderful Pina Bausch dance concert that was cancelled just before the major shutdown.

Yes!  It's a strain on everyone. And, because I think I'm so smart, I forget that not being able to attend theatre and see movies on a  regular basis and am required to shop with others all masked with vacant eyes.. it's an insidious burden. So maybe I need to excuse my old republican classmates? It isn't easy living in the world today.  

Which brings me.. to.. 

being compassionate and kind 

and realizing that some of us have drunk one flavor of Kool-Aid and some of us another and even though our lives literally hang in the balance,  I firmly believe that finding a way back to civility and caring for one another instead of name calling and bullying others into submission, that taking a look at the picture of our situation right now and deciding if it's working or not will guide us back to civility and empathy and respect for one another.

Please.  Vote Blue. 

Michael Sheehan

August 29, 2020

Glendale, California