John reflects on primary season

By the time you read this it will be two down forty-eight to go when it comes to primaries and caucuses. I’m writing this before the New Hampshire primary so I won’t hazard to guess which candidates are smiling this morning although I have a pretty good idea. That is if we can believe the polls. If I heard one more time that the Des Moines Register poll in Iowa was the “gold standard” of modern polling and never wrong I was going to scream. As you saw it was way off in both races, most notably when it came to Marco Rubio’s popularity.

Is it just me or does it feel like these candidates have been running for president for about two years now? I promised myself I wouldn’t get sucked to this election nonsense until we hit primary season but there’s no ignoring it now. Ready or not we’ll elect a new leader this fall as our country has done 44 times before. While we have elected 44 presidents did you know we have actually only had 43 different men assume the office? It’s true. Grover Cleveland was our 22nd and 24th president having lost to Benjamin Harrison in between.

There’s no way you could pull that off today. Winning your parties nomination is like jumping out of an airplane; you only get to do it once and you can’t go back if your chute doesn’t open and you hit the rocks; just ask Michael Dukakis or Mitt Romney. Truth is when you wake up on the rotten end of inauguration day I doubt you’d want to go through it all again even if your party would have you. It’s also worth noting that given our vanity and the popularity of Sesame Street it is highly unlikely anyone named Grover will get near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue again in this or any lifetime.

The biggest shock these past few months has been the success of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised as both possess a similar quality in that they are exactly as they appear to be. Sanders the slightly disheveled uncle you loved sitting with a family weddings who waxes on about the world’s injustice and Trump the arrogant uncle who made his fortune, has no filter and won’t shut up about it. As contrary as their views may be I think they both love this country so they share that quality too.

What disappoints me most isn’t the candidates as much as us. We have become so polarized in our beliefs, not to mention, academy award win- ning drama queens. How many times in the last 20 years have you heard someone say, “If so and so gets elected I’m leaving the country.” Oh go to bed would you please. You aren’t going anywhere. The world keeps spinning no matter who is in office messing things up. Besides, thanks to Johnny Adams, Tommy Jefferson and a handful of others, there are enough checks and balances in place to keep any commander in chief from beaching the boat too badly.

It’s interesting. Unless the historians lie our founding fathers disagreed on many things but they left the discord on the debate floor and were quite capable of having a pint of ale together afterwards. I don’t see our candidates doing that today. It’s more fun to smile to someone’s face and then eviscerate them on Twitter from the shadows of your hotel room after.

And we the voters are even worse. Try saying something that is even remotely critical of Hillary, Donald or Bernie and see what happens. Statements like, “perhaps Trump should have debated”, “how is Sanders going to pay for this” or “those Clintons sure cashed in on those speaking fees” are declarations of war for their disciples and they will come back at you with talons out.

Here’s a news flash- none of them is perfect. Speaking only for myself I can find good and bad with every single candidate. Some I like much more than others but my slightly older age has taught me that the experiment that is this republic is built to survive even if we put an incompetent moron in the Oval Office. And let’s be honest we’ve elected a couple who certainly straddle that line.

So my advice (which you didn’t ask for) is calm down. Who we vote for is important but watching CNN or Fox News 24-7 will only give you high blood pressure and even if the guy or gal you loathe gets in we’ll all be OK. People hated Bush No. 2 and Obama No 1 and here we still are with high taxes, crumbling bridges and half the world at each other’s throats.

The best things in life are the simple things; time with people you love, playing hooky from work, eating Cinnabons when your doctor told you to “knock it off.” What egomaniac wins the White House won’t change that. Life goes on, the republic survives.