Morning in America, 2024
It’s morning in America after the 2024 Presidential election, and I’m aware that there’s a lot of suffering among my fellow citizens. I find myself feeling a sense of peace and hope, and it’s not because my “team won” the election. To my own profound surprise, I think I found a win for myself that I want to share. I don’t know that it’ll be widely helpful, but if it’s helpful to anyone, I want to put it out there.
Yesterday, on reading an article in TIME magazine, I thought about how deeply U.S. politics has hurt the majority of our citizens. TIME reported that leading up to the election, about 70 percent of people were stressed about the election. People everywhere thought that we all might be on the verge of moving away from our most important values. It had gotten to the point where many thought the election might result in the death of a hard-won system of Democracy. About 40 percent were thinking seriously about moving to another country, depending on the outcome of the election.
Choosing to Demote Politics in Your Life
After dinner, my husband and I turned on the news and watched for perhaps 20 or 30 minutes. After that time, we both felt such an acute anxiety that we chose to turn it off.
Then a funny, unexpected thing happened. I decided to go to bed early and not think about the election. In the morning, I did not check to see who had won or even if the election had been decided. My husband told me that it had.
According to TIME magazine and the American Psychological Association, like most Americans, I had been beaten up by politics in America. I’d been stressed, anxious, and depressed about the state of things. Sometime between last night and this morning, I decided that I needed another strategy if I was going to go forward and live the best life I could.
Do You Want Politics on Your Center Stage?
My strategy is this: I am choosing to move politics from center stage in my life to the background. I am choosing to reject politicians’ attempts to enrage and frighten me on a daily basis. I am reaffirming the perspective that life is about so much more than politics.
I never consciously chose to make politics central to whether or not I can feel safe and healthy. It chose me. My epiphany is that I can choose what I decide to fill my mind with. I can work against their attempts to destabilize me. That takes me from being a pawn back to controlling my own perspective.
Saying No When You Are in a Trap
Some of you may be thinking that this perspective shift is not an option for you. You can’t do it because politics are consequential, and your beliefs are too dear not to fight for. I agree that your values are worth fighting for. I also believe that your well-being is worth fighting for. As they say, you have to put on your mask first before you help others. Sometimes, I think you need to get some new, fresh air before you can even decide what to do for yourself.
Do Politics Feel Abusive to You?
What I realized relates to my knowledge of abusive relationships. In an abusive relationship, the abuser can give you a no-win choice. They say, for instance, stay with them, or they will hurt someone you love. That’s basically emotional terrorism. I feel like, though there are certainly differences, there are also similarities to that kind of emotional terrorism in everyday American political life.
I have learned that you have to say no to abusers, even when you think you can’t. In fact, when you think you can’t is exactly when it’s most important to say no. You’ve been offered a terrible choice. I believe that the healthiest, bravest choice can sometimes be to choose not to play the abuser’s game.
Is it possible to still care about your values, vote and participate in political movements, and also distance yourself from politics? I think there are ways to do that. I don’t have all the answers, but moving forward, I plan to keep politics at a distance. I plan to reject the idea that I must follow every news story, every ignorant, mean daily quote from a politician, or risk making a poor moral choice.
I’ve long felt like all Americans are pawns in a large campaign to foment unrest in the American public at great cost to ourselves and our neighbors. Whatever the outcome of the election, I still think that we are the suffering pawns of giant political machines and wealthy influencers.
Today, I am remembering how fortunate I am and how much hope I have. I’m remembering that life is short and precious. I can’t help thinking that if more people turned the volume way down on politics, our country and we, as individual citizens, would be better for it.