Welcome to the United States of Anxiety: Observations from a Reforming Neurotic by Jen Lancaster

Author:Jen Lancaster [Lancaster, Jen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL

The debate still rages about who should have won the 2016 election—the candidate with the most electoral votes, or the candidate with the highest popular vote.

Of course, the answer is obvious: the winner is Pfizer, the manufacturer of Xanax.

So much about our government feels both hopeless and broken right now, and that inherently makes us feel unsafe. There are no quick fixes to unify us, save for an Independence Day–style alien invasion. Everyone’s convinced of their rightness, set in their position. I’m not going to change that, and it’s fruitless to try.

That we’re more polarized than ever isn’t an opinion; it’s fact. Zachary P. Neal, an associate professor at Michigan State University, devised a way to determine polarization by measuring the frequency of political parties working together and showing the ways they’ve grown away from consensus.126 Spoiler alert? The teams aren’t playing nice with each other, now more than ever. But anyone with a pulse knows that.

As profound as Neal found the divide in 2016, I bet he had no idea how 2019 would come along and say, “Hold my beer.”

Before I proceed, full disclosure is necessary: I no longer identify with a political party. I don’t want to be on anyone’s team and I have zero trust in those who desire to lead us. Yes, I spent most of my adult life as a Republican, but to bastardize a Reagan quote, I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Republican Party left me. In theory, I’m a Libertarian, but until they find a candidate who didn’t graduate from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, I declare myself politically agnostic/independent and will hold my nose while I vote a split ticket for whomever I hate the least. As Plato said, “But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.”127 What he was saying is that the penalty for not participating is to be governed by your inferiors. He is also frequently credited with having said that only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.128

I feel like Plato might have been a bummer at dinner parties.

Anyway, last summer, I accompanied Gina on an errand to the South Side of Chicago. She pointed out Barack Obama’s street as we drove through the leafy, green Kenwood neighborhood, lovely with wide sidewalks and elegant old houses set far back from the street. I voted against Obama, both times. But, oh, to have him now, his dignity and decorum like gold in my hands. As we passed the president’s block, I felt a weight on my heart. I sighed and said, “I miss Obama.” Gina, a lifelong Democrat, laughed and replied, “I miss Bush.”

If I identify with anything, it’s being an American, which is why I despise how badly we’ve splintered as a country. The divisions between us aren’t new, but the ways we deal with them are. We’ve lost the social norm of civility. I suspect what’s changed is the attitude that we’re all in this together.

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