the election

After the hype of election night (correction: the hype never ends, but the initial hype has calmed somewhat), I feel I can now comment sensibly on the election.

Looking through a number of blogs on all sides of the political world, I have come to a solid, disturbing conclusion: The Middle is sorely underrepresented in all things political.

By The Middle, I mean people like me. I vote. I am not a huge supporter of some of the President's ideas, although I have great respect for the office and the person. I also had great respect for the office and the person during the Clinton administration as well, although some of his acts certainly cannot be condoned. I do not have a venomous hate for all Democrats like some conservatives I hear in the media. I do not have a venomous hate for all Republicans like some liberals.

Am I an independent? Not on paper. To be an independent would be to lose all power in primaries and caucuses. I would much rather remain registered with a party so I can have some influence in which person is selected to run.

Who has been catering to The Middle, the people like me, during this election season? Has anybody stepped forward as a voice of reason to say that there is good in all parties and that cooperation, as Sesame Street taught us so many years ago, makes it happen? No. At least not on a broad scale.

Instead, we have been fed negativity in almost every campaign, whether by the candidates or by their supporters or by media covering the races. This language of mutual hatred is demeaning to everybody in public life, and it pollutes the climate to the point that even months after the election, those who actually made it into office are seen as unworthy of any trust.

I can say that I voted for both elephants and donkeys on Tuesday. I cannot say that I am more or less confident in the future of America today than I was a week ago. No matter who won in the election, The Middle lost. The reasonable people who want trustworthy leaders lost. Those who value the way the game is played as much as the final score realize that a so-called victory for either side in such dirty races is hollow at best. More than any election I can remember, this one seems particularly fraught with loss. The particular people who got the votes don't matter as much as the values and trust so many lost in gathering them.

May God bless the America we now are to become the America we know we ought to be. May we find some way to meet in The Middle and learn the art of civil discourse and brotherhood even in disagreement.