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Nervous about the upcoming election. It is time to relax. Read this.
Presidential elections have always contained equal amounts of optimism and misgiving. Promises are delivered by smiling politicians, while we wonder if the world isn’t going mad. There is method in the madness of political campaigns, although it isn’t always easy to understand why this is so.
The American history books you studied in high school are the source of the average person’s knowledge of American history. Much of what is said could be set to music, or at the very least, used by an advertising agency to market their newest widget.
If you research the founding fathers of our nation, you can’t help being impressed by their genius. They were familiar with the political system of Europe, and were determined to avoid the mistakes that had made those countries less than they could have been. Despite the fact that the leaders of our society think we are all alike, we really aren’t. People are like the preverbal snowflakes that are never alike, although the ones who run social programs never seem to realize this. Our founding fathers, however, did acknowledge the difference, and they created a political system that is inclusive. Political pundits wring their hands as election day approaches, telling us in dire tones that the people who refuse to conform have too much influence on national elections, when it is really just as our founding fathers intended it to be. No one can get elected in this country by appealing exclusively to the rich, the poor, whites, blacks, the immigrant vote, gays, conservatives, or liberals. Political parties must cast a wider net in order to draw in enough people from the various minority groups to swing an election.
This is a vast and wonderful country, and there is room for each dissimilar group. The concept of the ‘melting pot’ has been around for a long time, and it has made us stronger, but we should never forget that an equally important factor is our differences. Since the beginning of time, leaders have said, “we need to learn to get along.” A good concept, but I must disagree somewhat. We need understanding more than conformity, which is the cornerstone of any civilized society. Few of us will be completely happy with the outcome of the coming election, for none of us will get everything we want, but we will definitely get a piece of the pie, and that is what America is all about.
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