I Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident (But Many Apparently Don't)

I'm writing this on election eve, 2018. As you head to the polls tomorrow (or, if you voted early, as you watch the election coverage on TV and follow the myriad social media rants about it), remember these truths:

• All politicians lie, at all levels, from both parties (and the Independents and "secondary" parties). To wit (and I could go much further back in history, and deeper down the level of elected official, but this will at least get you started):
• "This is the biggest tax cut in our nation's history."
• "You can keep your health care plan and your doctor."
• "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
• "Read my lips: no new taxes."
• All Presidents blame their predecessor for everything that goes wrong during their administration, and they've begun taking credit for everything that goes right under the subsequent administration. There are some kernels of truth in that, but most of it is BS, and it's self-serving at best.
• If the Democrats win control of the House, the Senate, or both, the world as we know it will not end. Nor will it end if they don't. You'll still have your family, your home, your health and your puppies. (Or kitties, if you're a cat person - and if you are, I love you anyway.)
• Increasingly, each party, once it regains control of the House, the Senate, the White House, or any combination thereof, spends most of its political capital trying to undo whatever the previous House, Senate or Administration did. (Some of this is okay in terms of bad policies, but much of it has become about nothing more than undoing the previous legacy, like little kids who win at a playground game suddenly deciding to re-write the rules because, hey, they won.) And they do it because we not only let them, we encourage them. It's time to move forward, and to break the cycle of doing and undoing the same old stuff.
• Journalism is dead. All media reporting is biased. We choose our outlets to affirm us, not to inform us. If you want the truth, research relentlessly, fact-check suspiciously, and go to source documents when they're available. Take time to read them fully. Do it with an open mind. Check your bias at the door. Be willing to have your mind changed.
• Nazis are Nazis, Hitler was Hitler, the Mafia is the Mafia, fascists are fascists. Just because you're a member of one party or the other doesn't necessarily mean you fall into one of those groups. Similarly, the overwhelming majority of Republicans are not racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, or evil, but a small number undoubtedly are. At the same time, a small number of Democrats undoubtedly are racist, sexist, anti-Semitic or evil, though the overwhelming majority of Democrats are not. If you claim otherwise, you're painting with too broad a brush.
• Everyone should vote their conscience, and if they do, there is no wrong in the way they vote. So don't try to claim that if someone votes for candidates you oppose that those voters are wrong, bad, evil, Nazis, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, fascist, or that they should be ashamed of themselves, or shouldn't be able to live with themselves, or sleep at night. Bash all the candidates you want, but if you value your right to vote, respect everyone else's. Be glad they exercised their hard-fought right to vote in the first place, and don't denounce them because they don't see the world as you see it. Our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents and ancestors didn't fight on the battlefield or in the suffrage or civil rights movements to earn us the right to vote Democrat or Republican; they fought to secure us the right to vote as we choose. Group-think only exists within Communism, and even then it's not voluntary. So embrace our differences and understand that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.
• Social media has gotten way out of hand. So pledge to avoid the memes (I'm tempted to embark on a mission to correct every misinformed or just plain false meme I see on social media, but I won't; I don't want to alienate my friends, and I don't have that much free time), the extreme, over-the-top name-calling (see the sixth bullet point above), and the extreme rhetoric. Stick to the facts. Keep calm. Self-medicate if you need to. Remember that it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth (or keyboard) and remove all doubt, and that we rarely regret what we didn't say.
• Political rhetoric has gotten out of hand as well. Don't let that justify stooping to the level of a Donald Trump or a Maxine Waters. What-aboutism is a dangerous disease, and if you don't innoculate yourself against it, you risk atrophy of the soul.
• As a friend once said, no one is as bad as you think they are, and no one is as good as you think they are.
• At the end of the day, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, white or black, male or female, gay or straight, young or old, Christian, Jew, Muslim or atheist, we are all Americans. It's high time we started acting like it again.