Hope, Joy, and Compromise

I wasn’t planning on using my blog for anything other than sharing our family road trips, but as I sit here—one week from the end of the 2024 election cycle—I want to share my hope for our country. We all have a big choice to make, and I want to believe that we will choose to move forward rather than go backward as a nation.

A McCain Republican

With that said, let me start by telling you a little bit about myself. I grew up first in a military town—San Diego—and then in Arizona, all the while surrounded by Republicans (or kids who were pretty clearly influenced by Republican parents) at school and church. As my political mindset developed, I figured I, too, must be a Republican. The President at the time, Bill Clinton, seemed to accomplish some pretty good things—but he seemed like a scumbag, and I had a hard time supporting him outwardly (honestly, that continues to this day). When I turned 18, the same year we had a presidential election, I was excited to register to vote, and I selected “Republican” as my party of choice.

The year was 2000, and John McCain was running for the nomination. This was special to me because he was from my state. He was the type of man who prided himself on his ability to collaborate with his colleagues no matter their party affiliation. He valued compromise, which I admired about him. I learned a lot about leadership when I spent time in junior high student council, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to attend leadership camp, where I learned the qualities of good leaders. That’s what I saw in McCain.

Unfortunately, he lost. George W. Bush won (though that wasn’t without controversy). We went through a bunch of stuff as a country—terror attacks, a revenge tour, questionable wars, and ultimately a financial crisis. Along the way, I gritted my teeth and voted for Bush over Kerry, wishing we could’ve had a do-over with the GOP nomination instead of just defaulting to a reelection bid.

By 2008, I was hopeful McCain would prevail as he gave it another go. He got the party nomination, but in the process, he started giving up (at least outwardly) his moderate values—leaning more towards the right in hopes of locking up the support necessary for a Presidential victory. I told myself he was doing it for show and voted for him over Obama. I was sad when he lost, but Obama didn’t take long to win me over.

Finding The New Middle

As I continued to grow, I saw that many issues were at stake, and many people needed help to get the same opportunities as those of us who were born into some degree of privilege. Marginalized individuals came in every shape, size, and color—they continued to deal with historic racism, sexism, and bigotry. The America that schools wanted to teach us was an incomplete picture. Racism wasn’t solved when the Union won the Civil War or when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Sexism wasn’t solved when women were given the right to vote. Equality wasn’t inherently understood when gays gained the protected right to marry. We must continue to look out for everyone in our society, or we risk slipping back into darker times. I saw in Obama, a man who recognized all of that. As his Presidency went on, I saw that he balanced that with a desire to work with everyone in our country’s leadership to get things done.

Unfortunately, at the same time, many people dug in their heels because change is hard, and it’s so much easier to stick with the status quo. Then Trump happened. I will refrain from using words that describe how I feel about him here, but suffice it to say I believe he’s the worst thing to ever happen to our country. He saw an opportunity to exploit those people and latched onto them for his gain. He stoked the flames of fear and leaned on time-honored unfortunate traditions like racism, sexism, and bigotry to further divide us so that he could gain more power. His time in office was a black eye on our country. It’s embarrassing that we let it happen.

Trump’s disdain for McCain is well known, and he continues to insult the man despite him no longer walking among us—now buried at the US Naval Academy. Trump doesn’t believe in what I think was one of McCain’s most vital points: compromise. He isn’t about compromise; he’s about winning and losing. To that point, he has made it clear that he thinks McCain and servicemembers like him were losers for the sacrifices they made for their country. That someone would make a selfless sacrifice doesn’t compute in his brain. He believes prisoners of war have a mark of shame because they got caught by the enemy. He just doesn’t take the military seriously. Rather, he thinks it should serve him personally. For real? Yeah. But I digress (for now)…

What Compromise Means to Me

It’s been said that a good compromise leaves no one happy. Compromise isn’t about winning and losing. It’s about finding common ground on issues and seeing that those with an opposing viewpoint have a right to their opinion, and their opinions have value. Everybody gets something but also sacrifices something for their neighbor. We can be proud of the results. It’s almost always worth it.

The last four years under Joe Biden have been, I think, an “okay” time for our country. Have we prospered to the same degree we have in the past 30 years? Probably not. But coming out of COVID, how could we? I respect the way Biden passed legislation to help our country. No matter how you feel about the guy, his accomplishments are hard to argue against—though inflation was hard to control coming out of lockdowns, it’s finally slowed down to reasonable levels. Employment is at a high. Wages are up. Our country is either the top-performing or one of the top-performing economies in the world. We indeed did “build back better” than most of the planet. And it was done by working across the aisle to get things done.

The 2024 Election

We are on the precipice of doing one of two things:

1. Choosing joy. Returning to civility. Creating a brighter outlook for our children, our neighborhoods, and the world.
2. Reverting to hatred, fear-mongering, and deciding to keep to ourselves in the name of “rugged individualism.”

I want to believe so badly we’ll choose the former over the latter.

Okay, so what was the point of all of this? I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that we’re all complex individuals with unique and varied pasts. I think we all want what’s right for our country. But let’s take a step back and consider whether our choices reflect that.

LFGV (Let’s F*ing Go Vote)

As for me? I think Kamala Harris is an excellent example of compromise. She’s not the super left candidate Trump wants people to believe she is. She’s a former prosecutor with left-leaning moderate values who has an opportunity to bring back a spirit of compromise. In Idaho, my vote for her doesn’t matter. Idaho is locked in for Trump because the Electoral College is trash, but that’s a conversation for another day. If you live in a swing state—Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina—I urge you to give her your vote. And if you find yourself struggling with that, please consider an alternative to voting for whoever has the “R” next to their name just because it’s what you’ve always done—whether it’s a third party or just leaving that race blank, you have options.

Here in Idaho, we’re considering open primaries and ranked-choice voting. I strongly urge anybody here to vote yes on Proposition One. The TLDR on RCV is that it has the ability to return civility to elections and diminish the power of extremist viewpoints. I’ve yet to see a single argument that makes sense opposing it. Opposition seems to almost exclusively be funded by Idaho GOP leadership or the billionaires who have current legislators in their pocket. If Proposition One passes, Idaho isn’t going to become a liberal haven. Honestly, it’s not even going to turn purple. If it goes back to a less deep shade of red willing to work with opposing viewpoints, that’s a big win for all of us.

A More Perfect Union

I’ve been a registered Republican for 24 years, initially because of my political leanings but lately because of necessity due to closed primaries. I don’t have a strong tie to any party, and I’ve never voted a straight ticket down party lines. Even now, you would have seen me vote for a couple of Republicans on this year’s ballot here in Idaho alongside a majority Democrat set of choices.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss why I’ve made the decisions I’ve made, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Text me. DM me. Whatever. I’d be glad to have a civil and honest conversation.

I look forward to more civility. More compromise. More empathy. We can do this. This country has never been “great” exactly, but we have always strived to become better than we were the day before—for a “more perfect union”—and I hope that never stops. 🇺🇸