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I don’t know about you, but this seems like the most bitter and ugly presidential election in quite some time.
It seems like there’s so much at stake. And everybody is so divided. And the media is saying this group or the other is going to tip the election.
Recently, Time magazine said Latinos will determine who wins.
But they also said that about blacks and other minorities.
We’ve been told women will be a deciding factor, and senior citizens and their caregivers.
Then, of course, it will be the “undecideds” – duh – who will decide the election.
Meanwhile, the candidates themselves are spending fortunes accusing each other of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor or vice versa while trampling the middle class and denying health care to old folks.
Look, there’s no question there’s a deep philosophical divide in this nation that has sharpened as times toughened.
But maybe you’ve noticed how nasty it’s getting. Each side saying and believing the other side is stupid or blind or mentally ill. That they’re deliberately trying to kill the country.
Each side believes it with a jihadist’s zeal.
It’s all Bush’s fault!
No, Obama has made it 10 times worse!
You know what? It’s nobody’s fault.
Sex is to blame.
When World War II ended, soldiers rushed home and had lots of it, all around the world.
That caused a demographic bulge, the Baby Boomers. A huge cluster of now-aging people, going on retirement, getting disability checks, needing heart valves and hip replacements.
And there just aren’t enough young people to pay for it.
You could see this economic crisis coming 20 years ago. And it’s not going to get better until the boomers’ grandkids enter their prime spending and earning years.
All of us need to realize that the tough times will continue and likely worsen as more and more Boomer’s retire and enter their prime health care-crisis years.
I feel sorry for the Boomer’s kids. They’ll have to pay for our health care and retirement, their own children’s educations, all while paying back their own student loans.
Friends, all this division isn’t going to add up to anything positive. Can we disagree with those who have a different philosophy without hating on them, vilifying them?
Can’t we understand that those who disagree with us still love their country? Can we understand we see things through our own agenda-colored glasses?
And as far as which little slice of our society will tip the election, I believe it will be those who are afraid of where we are now, and where we’re going.
That would be just about every single one of us.
My hope is we can find some way to stand together. Divided, we fall.
