“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”
This may be one of the most iconic opening sentences in literature; it’s from Dickens’ book, A Tale of Two Cities.
Iconic? Yes… but is it accurate?
The next paragraph holds the answer.
“(I)t was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
A Tale of Two Cities could today be more aptly rechristened, A Tale of Two Mindsets. In a sense the title applies to the 2024 political season… and it just might right now be the tale of double-mindedness… both yours and mine.
Allow me to explain.
America is in a wrestling match of superlatives – candidates from local races to the presidency seem to believe that, “This is the most important election cycle in our history.” When comparisons to other time periods are used, such expressions DO become superlatives, rather than accurate.
Imagine something for a second - what if one or more of the candidates you support for local office, for US Congress or for the US Presidency, are not elected in November? What is the day after the election going to be for you, for your household? What real discomfort or pain will you enter into? Certainly, they’ll be a political hang-over, a sense of loss. I understand that. (I’ve run for US Congress and for State Senate…and lost. I get it.)
But what REALLY happens in YOUR life? You’ll most likely wake up, have breakfast, go to work, return home and plan your weekend, your winter, and your next year.
Life is like that, until it isn’t. There are brief moments in life when we have to make quick decisions – even times where that decision is life or death.
Imagine being on an airplane, taking off from the airport in central Washington D. C. in a snowstorm. You’re with 78 other people and the tail of your plane hits the 16th Street Bridge, plunging the entire airplane into the frozen Potomac River.
It’s 1982 and your name is Lenny Skutnik. You’re not a passenger on the plane, though you ARE in your car on 16th Street watching the crash happen right in front of you. While others around you are double-minded, you are not. You have to make a life and death decision. You decide to do this:
At moments like that, we must "tear off our outer garments and dive into the icy waters", prepared to give our lives for another. There’s also a time, more often than not, that we have to live our everyday life, including voting and trusting the system. It’s how the resilient American government was formed by our founders.
Our government was intentionally designed to move slowly… pedantically. Quick action on the other hand is reserved for emergencies like life and death situations for military and police. All other possible government policies and procedures are just lagging indicators of what the American public desires. They lag behind public opinion - and public opinion changes quickly. Rapid action isn't always needed on government issues. Thoughts become ideas and ideas morph slowlytoward becoming potential policies. Nothing happens quickly, by design.
In a recently published discussion on elections between Michael McKenna and Rev. Dr. Teresa Smallwood, Mr. McKenna opened with this:
“In the United States, elections–and the governments they produce–are lagging indicators of public sentiment. Elections simply provide a quantitative measure of what the voters believe. The governments that emerge from elections merely establish order and discipline with respect to those policies and approaches that have already been emotionally and intellectually pioneered and adopted by the American people.”
Public opinion precedes public policy. Public policy can be wrong – legal slavery and legal unlimited abortion are examples – And they took decades to rectify. As Lincoln said in 1838, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Even if public opinion suddenly seems intent towards suicide, more often than not, our lives are STILL to be led in quiet, peaceful submission to the governing authorities, because public policy lags behind the pace of red-hot public opinion.
So what do we personally do if the public world around us seems to shout us down and scream in our faces that up is down and wrong is right? We act like Americans. We choose to use the American system to respond – our Bill of Rights instructs us on that opportunity. We have the right to free speech, we have the right to assemble, we have the right to arm ourselves, we have the right to not be unreasonably searched, nor our property seized. As Americans we have these and other specific, spelled-out rights. We don’t have to shirk or shrink away from others who hold different beliefs – because the nature of our nation is to coalesce ALL of our ideas into the Rule of Law – and THEN we live by those decisions, for the time we are alive and remain as citizens of this Republic. This is America, not Heaven; we’re citizens here and subjects of a King, there. Big difference.
So, when you and I have a difference of opinion with a political viewpoint we have the right to speak out. I think our national leaders would say that, too.
In fact, they did. President Reagan spoke out in a forceful way during an incredibly sensitive time between the USSR and the USA.
President Kennedy did as well. When nuclear weapons were placed in Cuba, just off the coast of the United States, the President said this.
President Harry Truman leveled with America at the very moment he ordered our military to level Japan through the use of the atomic bomb.
When conflict comes, straight talk is vital. It doesn't have to be ONLY on issues of national concern. Those kinds of decisions and discussions come from the President, often as he addresses the nation from the White House. We also need to hear from each other on a local level from YOUR house...and from MY house.
As an example of such behavior, my friend, Christ Troupis and I wrote an Opinion Editorial and sent it off to many news organizations to have it published online. We exercised our right to free speech. I hope this is an encouragement for YOU to consider when you are frustrated and feel like screaming at our government or its leaders. The subject is whether political party primaries should be eliminated in favor of ranked choice voting and “open” voting in an upcoming Idaho proposition.
Interested? Read our op-ed by clicking here.
Now, it's you turn.
It is my desire to challenge you to consider expressing your own political and civic ideas about this November’s election. Do NOT hide your light under a bushel basket. The world needs to hear different thoughts and ideas that are anchored to solid logic and proven historical reality. Your community needs to hear your thoughts. Go share those thoughts with your neighbors, online, through conversation, and signs in your yard. Do so in caring ways of gentle speech.
You know what you believe. Say it. Write it. Produce it. Act now to influence public opinion – knowing that the actual process of turning that into public policy is a long and drawn-out process – as it should be.
And remember that this election is NOT the MOST important election in our history. But this election IS important BECAUSE it is an election happening NOW.
The day after the election will remind us again that America will continue to exist and that whatever opposition or defeat lies ahead will pale in the light of America’s incredible system.
More later,
Den
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