Our daughter in high school is taking a class on American Government right now (which is pretty exciting during a presidential election.) She has become interested in watching old clips of debates from previous elections. (Think Reagan/Carter or Bush/Clinton eras…) She said to me after watching a grainy video from the 1980s, “Mom… it was almost like they liked each other.”
The rhetoric of the past is a far cry from what we see in American politics today. As North Carolinians who live in a swing state, the awful mud-slinging of the political ads are hard to watch. They’ve become so extreme, I don’t even want my teenage children to see them.
Can boring elections come back?
Some Political Therapy
I don’t believe our bodies were made to handle all the constant information and stress like we experience today. Since we happen to be releasing our weekly podcast on Election Day 2024, we invited Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers from the top-rated podcast Pantsuit Politics for some much-needed political therapy (and to discuss the state of our nation and how we move forward.)
“I have to remind myself that the reason we are all so hot is because we love this country,” explains Sarah Stewart Holland. Four in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. Sarah and Beth reminded us that 40% (while higher than it should be) is not the majority and they trust that we have institutions capable of managing any extremists should that issue arise.
Setting The Tone
“What gets me down is that in my community people get their yard signs stolen. I think that’s not normal. That personal, low-stakes ugliness to each other is not and should not be the standard we hold ourselves to in this country,” Beth Silvers mentions while discussing the divide in our nation. She believes we can move beyond some of those behaviors if our leadership sets a different tone.
When dealing with different perspectives, Sarah and Beth recommend asking the question: How do you think we got to see this so differently?
Listen more to our discussion below and make sure you vote.
