What public school teaches us about accepting election results
My brother and sister-in-law have an excellent parenting podcast (the Young Family Podcast) and they are currently wrestling with the school track to put their first-born son on. In the most recent episode, my brother Erik visited a few prospective schools.
Private school is too pricey in these uncertain economic times with two kids. Charter school is enticing but public school is most realistic.
That was until he visited the public school his son would go to.
Immediately he felt all the emotions from childhood rushing back. He found himself frustrated talking to the administrators in the present the same way he felt frustrated talking to teachers in his youth. He described public school as one “no” after another and all creativity came from beyond those constraints.
My first thought was to agree with him on the form and function of public school. But as I processed this I found myself sticking up for my own public school experience. In the micro, yes, the daily lesson of public school was that there are forces beyond my control that will tell me what to do and get away with it. They are often soul and creativity crushing.
In the macro, evolving beyond my expectation that school was there to make me a better person made me realize no one was going to help me be a better person. I had to do it myself.
The navigation between those defined my life.
It reminded me of our election.
I’ve bristled when people have said that we have to accept immediately that there was no voter fraud in this or past elections. Mostly because the history of our country is rife with allegations and proof of political manipulation. But our system is also the rules of the road for our democracy.
Should we always look to safeguard it, correct it and blow the whistle when it’s being tampered with? Yes. Does it make you a bad person if you think it was tampered with beyond the results? No.
But in the micro, when the clock hits 0:00 and your team is on the losing end of the scoreboard… you have to accept the results. You’ll get ‘em next time. The good news is, the next game is already on the calendar.
You can always opt out of the system. Some people drop out of school.
But more often than not it’s something you’re going to have to make up for later.
NEW Px3! Impeachment Winners and Losers!
Rejoice, Liz Cheney and Facebook!
Despair, Donald Trump and Joe Biden!
That and a mailbag filled with Capitol Riot questions and a WAY TOO EARLY 2024 PREVIEW that’s already out of date.
THE REST OF THE NEWS…
Biden grapples with how to handle first 100 days amongst impeachment
POLITICO
Even as he loses power… one man still hold all the cards.
Cuomo allows indoor dining for most of NY state after court loss
SYRACUSE.COM
This might seem like a slapdash, ass-backwards way to handle a crisis but in his defense there is no manual on how to handle this.
Oh...
Biden to seek bipartisan support for $1.9 billion COVID stimulus package
BLOOMBERG
Trump reconnecting with Steve Bannon
Sloppy Steve rides again…
FREE POLITICAL FEEDBACK
JUST REPLY TO THIS EMAIL
For the record, I really like all the improvements you’ve made to the podcast and the newsletter over the past year or whatever. I think you have a useful perspective that challenges my viewpoint, and I think that is healthy.
Particularly for the newsletter, I feel like getting your actual takes versus just amusing GIFs is much more useful, so thank you for that. - DAVID
Thanks man! Feels good writing more.
—
The other day you wrote a sentence in your newsletter that really resonates with me. You articulated a feeling I've had for years, but could never really put my finger on: We're probably still in some kind of awkward adolescence when it comes to our every thought and opinion being recorded and transmitted. We never really had to deal with having a window into the mind of everyone we know and everyone we meet, and I don't think we're really equipped for having to deal with a constant stream of opinions on anything and everything that happens before we've even had the chance to process what's happened, let alone form an informed opinion of our own.
We've seen a lot of bold rhetoric and a lot of bold backpedaling in the run up to and in the wake of last week's events. It was business as usual right up to the moment where a line was crossed and everyone seems reluctant to articulate exactly which line and where. For what it's worth, I think this tech purge was a necessary first step towards healing. You cannot heal from a position where a "normal" reaction to bad news includes death threats. Of course there will be unintended consequences, but I'll take that over the unintended consequences that got 5 people killed last week. - JORDY
Unique to our age, I think we all understand what the line was. In fact here is a picture of it being crossed…
Now we might disagree how we got there or who gave the order, but that is the line.
—
Half of the messages at the end of your newsletter are indistinguishable from high thoughts. - STUART
I’ve got a brand.
—
Justin, that's an awesome picture of Waffle House. Did you know that because the restaurant chain often stays open during severe weather events they have special menus for when the power is out? Pretty crazy. - JASON
And they set up War Rooms to monitor hurricanes. Waffle House rules…
—
Everyone else sees the cliff we're about to go over, right? We're about to engage in the trial of a former president for crimes he would (most likely) not be convinced of in a criminal court. Major companies are engaging in efforts to marginalize his 70 million voters because 8,000 of his most fervent followers showed up in Washington, and a fraction of that group illegally entered the Capitol.
Donald Trump does not deserve mercy, but letting him slink out of town, his reputation in tatters, his most valuable asset (his image) all but totally destroyed, is the right thing to do to begin to heal this country. Trump had been both the most popular, and the most unpopular political figure for the last five years. His incompetence and self-delusion finally caught up to him when he fueled up a rabble with half-truths and fantasies of a stolen election, and pointed them at the Capitol with little direction and without concern for what they might do when they got there. I think he intended for them to surround the Capitol, so that lawmakers would act in the way he desired. (Which is marginally less bad, in that it circumvent the destruction of property and the potential harm to life and limb that entering the building brings.) I think the reason we are now seeing a quiet, more conciliatory Trump is that he finally realized he has no control. He has no control over his government. He has no future power to wield to control "his" party. He has no control over his most fervent supporters, who may have actually been dragging him along the whole time.
We should show him mercy, not because he deserves it, but because we have to begin unwinding the last three decades of steadily increasing partisanship that led us to where we are. If we don't, we are establishing a precedent that will be used for less extreme situations, like how no-knock raids started to protect police and preserve evidence, but have devolved to any crime police want to use them for. Do not empower the government to do this in this case where it is justified, or it will be used in cases where it is not justified in the future. I hope I'm wrong, but past experience would suggest I'm not. - J. D.
—