Life In America
I live a politically super-charged existence. I wake up to the Washington Post and proceed to MSNBC over coffee. The politics of America are a constant topic of conversation, thought, analysis, and emotion. Even Buddy, our dog, is “in:” when we leave him alone we leave him with his MSNBC “friends” whose voices are so familiar.
There are times when it seems far too much; but it’s my way of life in Trump World. I remember that same hyper-awareness during several crises in our government, beginning with the election of 1968. My candidate, Robert Kennedy, was shot down in June, only a few weeks after Martin Luther King. During the famous Chicago Democratic Convention with its riots, tear-gassing and police beatings in the street; I was laid up on the couch with a newly fractured arm. I watched the twenty-four hour network coverage, and the political machine roll over the “people’s will” with the nomination of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. I was twelve, and it was the first time I was really involved in the political process.
I’ve been hooked ever since. I have usually balanced my life, not allowing events to consume all of my attention. But from time to time; Watergate, the Persian Gulf War, the Clinton Impeachment, the election of 2000 and September 11, 2001; I have allowed myself to risk drowning in the ongoing events of the day.
This week I feel like there are more floundering people in this “sea of Trump.” The issues and terms have crept into multiple areas of our lives. On television, a show like Madame Secretary was about a President who had a mental incapacity (a brain tumor impacting his frontal lobe executive decision making) and had to be removed by the 25th Amendment. In Bull the lawyers were faced with following the instructions of a client and committing insurance fraud (Don McGahn may have faced a similar problem.) And even NCIS Los Angeles was about a rumored North Korean missile strike. And of course, late night TV starts with a monologue including the President, no matter what show you choose to watch.
I attended a beautiful wedding this weekend (and a great party after) and both in the ceremony and in the dinner toasts reference was made to the divisiveness of our times. No one made mention of President Trump, no one “took a side,” but the general climate found its way into the ceremony with several statements about overcoming disputations with love.
We all carefully choose where we share political discussions, even though we all want to talk about it. What if we find our friends don’t agree, or even worse, favor the other side: the intensity of feeling might end the friendship. And with those friends who we KNOW are “the other side,” there’s that difficult task of finding other things to talk about. It’s hard to do when the “alerts” on your phone are constantly reminding you of the next crisis.
The tide of the Trump crisis is rising. More and more of our lives and times will be subsumed by the events and actions. It will become even more difficult to maintain relationships across partisan divides. And as hard it was to believe with the Watergate or the 2000 Election, or 9/11; in the end I believe in the ultimate patriotism of America: the crisis will be resolved. We can only hope that we can then get back to a more normal Life in America.
I miss Cronkite and Brinkley. I don’t miss those turbulent times, but I’m grateful that they’ve given me perspective. The world was ‘going to hell in a handbasket’ back then, but we survived and learned. History, good and bad, repeats itself. We will learn, and grow, and be better for the Trump era.