Jeff's views

I’m gonna make a couple of observations about yesterday’s election. If you’re not interested…scroll on. There comes a point in every argument when someone finally asks the question that should have been asked at the beginning: “Are we going to do anything about this?” I suspect a great many Americans reached that point long before yesterday’s election. For months, we’ve endured the familiar spectacle of American politics. The accusations. The counteraccusations. The endless parade of talking heads explaining why everything wrong with the country is somebody else’s fault. The carefully rehearsed outrage. The promises that everything will change if we’ll just give one party or the other another chance. And yesterday, the voters spoke. Political analysts will dissect the numbers, examine demographic shifts, and assign blame. Republicans will conduct their postmortems. Democrats will celebrate. But I wonder whether they’re all missing something. The American electorate is becoming less interested in who wins the argument and more interested in who fixes the problem. So, the Democrats have won. Now what? Already, we’re hearing the familiar sounds of political combat. Investigations are being promised. Subpoenas are being discussed. California Congressman Robert Garcia, poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, greeted the election results with two words: “Lawyer up.” There may well be legitimate matters requiring investigation. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight, and no president or administration should be exempt from accountability. But accountability and political vengeance are not the same thing. If Democrats interpret yesterday’s election primarily as permission to spend the next two years pursuing Trump and his Republican colleagues, they may discover that voters have considerably less patience for political theater than they imagine. Because this election wasn’t simply a referendum on Donald Trump. It was also an assignment handed to the Democrats. And assignments come with expectations. The family struggling to pay its mortgage doesn’t particularly care which congressional committee produces the most embarrassing headline. The small-business owner trying to survive rising operating costs isn’t waiting breathlessly for the next televised confrontation between political adversaries. The elderly widow choosing between prescriptions and groceries isn’t especially interested in which party constructs the most devastating campaign advertisement. These people have problems. Real problems. And they’re entitled to expect the people they elect to do something about them. The distance from the White House to MY house grows ever greater, and I wonder whether the political establishment has any idea how exhausted Americans have become with the endless culture wars. I have friends who are Democrats, Republicans, and independents. We disagree about plenty of things. Sometimes profoundly. But increasingly, I hear a common frustration: Enough with the labels. Enough with the ideological purity tests. Enough with reducing every disagreement to accusations of racism, fascism, socialism, bigotry, or whatever other convenient epithet happens to be fashionable this week. Not every disagreement is evidence of moral depravity. Not every political opponent is an enemy of the republic. And not every problem facing America can be solved by finding somebody to blame. If I could address the Democrats who won yesterday, along with those already holding office, I’d tell them: “You’ve been given an opportunity. Do NOT mistake it for entitlement.” Because if the next two years produce little more than investigations, recriminations, partisan obstruction, and another exhausting cycle of political warfare, following the next election the Democrats may find themselves stumbling around in a daze asking the same question Republicans are asking this morning. “What happened?” And to the Republicans who lost yesterday: the voters have told you something, too. You might want to listen. The celebration will end. The television cameras will move on. The campaign signs will come down. But life goes on. Millions of Americans will continue getting up, going to work, paying their bills, caring for their families, and trying to make ends meet. Just as they did before the election. Just as they will today, tomorrow, and the day after. And they will be watching. Political power is borrowed. I sincerely hope that fact isn’t lost on either party. Because in a democratic republic, power does not belong to the people who hold office. It belongs to the citizens who temporarily entrust them with it. And those citizens retain the right to take it back. The argument is over. Now fix something!