No matter who won Tuesday, I hope they’ll reach across the aisle

By Seth Boyes,

My very first time I registered to vote, it was in a middle school gym.

I was a senior in high school, and I believe I had study hall at some point on Election Day that year. So I walked down a connecting hallway, passed some rattly yellow lockers, through a dated commons area and into the gym, where I told an elderly woman I wanted to vote — looking back on it, I’m lucky we lived so close to the school, or I’d probably have been told I was in the wrong ward. 

George W. Bush and John Kerry were at the top of the ballot that year, and I considered myself a pretty hearty conservative at that time. Just a few years earlier, I’d drawn a cartoon on the back of my mock ballot in eighth period social studies, depicting Al Gore wearing a surgical gown and throwing babies in a trash can. But I also believed then — and I still do — that total loyalty to either party is a misguided approach to politics. So, when the elderly poll volunteer asked me if I wanted to register an affiliation with either party, I said no.

I was still pretty sure I knew who I’d vote for once I got in the booth though.

And like most high school students, I found out how woefully ignorant I was of the state and local races down the ballot. I’m pretty sure I left a lot of ovals blank that year.

But my pen hovered over the names in the presidential race for a bit. It felt weighty to actually be voting in a presidential election, and I wanted to take it seriously. I thought back on conversations I’d had ahead of that election with my former TAG teacher, who was particularly good at facilitating neutral discussions. Our class had briefly looked at past examples of presidents whose party affiliation was at odds with the one who held control of Congress during their administration. 

Obviously that makes it harder for a government to get things done — and I liked that idea. 

I didn’t think important issues should be streamlined and approved without serious discussion in the sake of a party name. And I thought anything that did pass through Congress without much debate would surely to be the type of thing that pretty much everyone agreed was in the country’s best interest. In short, I guess I decided opposition isn’t the enemy of good government. The word bipartisan hadn’t quite taken root in my vocabulary at that time, and I had yet to read about George Washington’s fear that a partisan system would lead to a spirit of revenge among lawmakers as they sought power rather than the good of the people, so I thought the idea was pretty novel for a few years after that.

Anyway, I surprised myself and voted for Kerry — he lost of course.

Now, as I type this column, folks still have more than six hours to get to their polling locations and cast their ballots in this year’s election. I have no idea who has won the presidency, or any other races for that matter — though there’s some uncontested races I’d be comfortable calling at this point. 

But no matter who has won — from the top of the ticket on down — I still feel like legislators and policymakers should have to work for things a bit. 

I’d say most if not all of us are tired of political polarization, but it’s not always easy to coax ourselves out of our own camps. It feels safer there. We don’t face as much criticism there. We feel safer sharing opinions there. We don’t have to explain ourselves quite as often there.

I get it.

But staying in our camps won’t get us very far. 

Talking to the other side will. Understanding the opposition will. Working with them to find mutually effective solutions will. 

It’s the kind of thing I think we used to expect of our lawmakers. Heck, they probably used to expect it of themselves, and hopefully they still do. So, regardless of who won Tuesday, I say we as the voting public make a renewed call for bipartisanship across the board.

That will, of course, mean loosening our collective grip on polarization, but I imagine it’ll be worth it. 

Agree with Seth? Think he’s got it completely backwards or he’s missed the point entirely? Let your voice be heard. Letters to the editor may be emailed to editor@decorahleader.com or dropped off at 110 Washington St. Suite 4 in Decorah.

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