No matter how things play out today, maybe we could get behind Bill Maher and his call to just move on from here. Maher is equally appealing and annoying but points out where the real land mines are as we move forward politically – no matter who wins tonight (or whenever).
Most of us seem to be clueless about is how quickly a civilization or country can fall apart. Sarajevo hosted the Olympics and in less than 2 years was in a civil war that lasted years. Maher points out how fragile things are given how close we live with our so-called “enemies”. It makes us more like Bosnia than we think. This wouldn’t be like our first Civil War. We would be fighting with our neighbors and most likely our friends. And they wouldn’t live 3-4 states away from us. They would be next door. We wouldn’t be arguing anymore – we would be fighting. It has already begun in some cities. It is either going to stop or it is going to get worse. Things don’t ever stay the same. They get better or they get worse. Sarajevo went from Edina to Bagdad overnight. One day kids were hanging out in malls, and the next day they were hiding in blown apart buildings wondering where their parents were.
We also shouldn’t pretend that the ideas the people other countries have fought about are much more serious or unresolvable than ours. They aren’t. We are all fighting about the same things. Countries that last – have politicians that solve problems. Countries that don’t last – well don’t.
I don’t think either side – Trump or Biden should concede if they think something was stolen. And both sides should stop saying the system is corrupt – it sets the stage for things to get sideways when it doesn’t have to. If things are corrupt it will be obvious.
One thing is clear and the next leader can take a step in the right direction or not. No country can’t go through multiple generations of its political leaders not solving the problems of the day, getting rich and accumulating wealth and power on the backs of the people, encouraging our divisions, and think things won’t turn out badly.