By Carl Sampson
Hang in there. In just a little over a month, it’ll all be over, including the shouting.
Yep, once Election Day has passed, we can all return to civility.
And, hopefully, we can find enough class to regroup and come together to support whoever the winners are.
There’s something you don’t hear much these days.
Oh, I have my favorites — we all do. And I honestly believe my choices will do a better job than the other folks. And I’m rooting for “my guys” to win.
But if they don’t, I think I’ll survive. The world will keep spinning. The sun will rise in the morning and set in the afternoon.
It’ll be OK.
I’m not wishy-washy. I’d be happy to point out why I support this guy for mayor, that guy for president and another guy for Congress.
But when the voting is done, we really do need to pull together. We need to work to straighten out Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs that continue to eat up a larger proportion of revenue each year.
Fixing them won’t be about being a Democrat or Republican. It’ll be about American. Something, we all are.
Once the voting is done, we need to give the rhetoric a rest. For months now, we’ve heard how some candidates are the best things since sliced bread and others are two steps from the devil’s doorway. I’m pretty sure both statements are false.
Hyperbole is a great political art form, and I don’t believe any of it. I remember in the movie Napoleon Dynamite, the main character’s best friend Pedro ran for student body president on the platform, “Vote for me and all of your dreams will come true.”
It’s not too far from some of the hyperbole flying out of the campaigns these days.
The one thing I know, having been around politics for many years, is that no candidate is as good as his (or her) supporters say — or as bad as his opponents say.
I know that most candidates have good qualities, and bad. And as a voter I need to sift through them and decide who will do the best job overall.
Then we need to make it clear that the only mandate to come out of election day is to do a good job, not for Democrats or Republicans, but for all Americans.
We need a great president — now — who can tackle the problems that threaten our nation. We need great members of Congress and great local mayors and city council members.
And we need them all to understand that they will have to reach across the aisle, compromise and work together to get the big jobs done.
And, most importantly, we need to understand that, with the many challenges our nation faces, including the runaway deficits that our children will be stuck repaying, failure is not an option.
