For the first time in my life I’m voting for a Democrat for President of the United States.
I don’t hold firmly to the Republican party line, but I trend conservative and voting Republican for this highest office has always made sense to me.
Until now.
I have many reasons for this, but to illustrate just one, I offer you the following analogy:
Imagine you’re part of a Home Owners’ Association with two distinct factions. One faction holds true to rules that have worked for you for decades. Their vision for the neighborhood looks a lot like the neighborhood you grew up in and it just feels right.
You don’t love every plan they come up with and you’re sometimes uncomfortable with the way they vilify the Other faction. You’re pretty sure they sometimes lie outright to persuade people to support them, but they assure you that the other side is even worse. You’re mostly comfortable. You choose to believe them.
When you talk to members of the Other faction, they usually seem pretty reasonable, but you’re wary. You view them through the lens Your faction has helped you create. A lot of the Other faction’s goals seem pretty similar to the goals of Your faction but they have a different approach to achieving those goals.
Sometimes the Other faction lies too or vilifies Your faction and it bothers you more than when Your side lies or vilifies because you don’t usually agree with the Other approach to maintaining the neighborhood.
But, after 20 years, a huge crisis arises and you have an all-day HOA meeting to discuss plans to save the community. Everyone’s angry and they accuse each other of lying and you really don’t know who to believe.
You sit with Your faction and try to figure out what to do next.
The HOA president is a member of Your faction but not the one you voted for because he’d shown himself to be an aggressive bully whose actions didn’t align with the values your faction had always said they stood for. But he won, so here you are.
At 2pm, he stands up and says, “Well, I guess it’s time to break for dinner.”
“Why?” the Other faction leader asks, “It’s only 2pm.”
“It’s not 2pm,” Your faction leader says, “It’s 6pm. Time for dinner.”
The Other faction is flabbergasted since the clock clearly says it’s 2pm.
Your faction starts to fidget, looking out the window at the bright sun overhead, checking their phones and watches.
“Um, Dave?” one mumbles, “I think they might be right. It appears to be 2pm.”
Your faction leader gives her a death glare.
“It’s 6pm,” he states forcefully, “You all know the Other faction is full of liars.”
Your faction members look around uncomfortably and one by one they shrug and start to pack up their things.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. 6pm. Time for dinner,” they say.
You ask yourself, am I going insane? My watch says it’s 2pm. The sun looks like it’s 2pm. Let me check online and see what the satellite says. Yup. 2pm.
“Excuse me,” you say timidly raising your hand, “I’m pretty sure it’s 2pm. I’ve checked multiple authoritative sources.”
All around Your faction members shush you. Your faction leader appears not to have heard your comment.
“Be quiet,” they say, “Are you a traitor?! Are you really going to side with that bunch of liars?”
You look around for hidden cameras. The whole thing is so insane.
Leaders and members of both factions continue to argue for hours about whether it was 6pm or 2pm when the disagreement started, both citing evidence to support their argument.
You don’t come up with a plan to save the neighborhood. How could you? You can’t even agree on what time it is.
The sad thing is, when Your faction leader asked for the 6pm dinner break at 2pm, you were hungry too. You would have liked to stop and eat. Members of the Other faction probably would have been fine stopping to eat. But no one ever got a chance to eat because you couldn’t simply discuss the problem, that you were all hungry and needed a break for food before continuing to discuss the more difficult topics on the table.
For the first time in 20 years, you wonder, really wonder how many things the Other faction was right about all along.
I feel like I’m sitting in that room right now with my jaw on the floor in disbelief. Both sides have lied throughout the years and that’s epically frustrating. However, for the first time ever we have a president who consistently lies about stupid, obvious, easily verifiable things. And big, dangerous, life-threatening things. All the things. And for the most part, politicians and supporters of his faction line up to defend and agree with him, attempting to change the very fabric of reality to support his whims.
When I talk to my friends on both sides of the aisle, they agree about SO many desires they have for our country. They disagree on how to make those desires a reality. While neither side is perfect, I’ve generally sided with the right on their solutions to our nation’s problems.
These are difficult and complicated discussions at the best of times. We are not living in the best of times.
At this point, before I have the luxury of exploring (for example) the intricacies of whose solution for affordable healthcare is more valid, I need to find a faction who’s willing to admit what time it is. So we can get back to having productive discussions.
Because it’s 2pm.
I know it is.
Originally posted on Medium.com.