The Next Great Debate: Who will restore normalcy in 2028?

     I was born in July of 2007. My dad often recalls the next 12 months as being the “best sports year of his life”. The Giants beat the undefeated Patriots, UNC won the National Title in Basketball, and the Boston Celtics won title number 17 in June – if only Notre Dame could have gotten it together that fall…

     For those of you doing quick math at home, that makes me 17. That also means this will be the last Presidential Election that I am not allowed to vote in. So, in keeping with that thought, I would like to share with all of you my hope for what the future of American Politics might hold for me and all of those other people who will cast their vote for the next President of the United States in 2028.

     The only thing we all seem to agree on is that this is the most divided our country has been, if not ever, in a very long time. Interesting that just this past Wednesday marked 23 years since the worst terrorist attack on US soil ever. Obviously, I wasn’t alive then, but every story you read about 9/11 and its aftermath all mention the spirit of patriotism, unity and fighting against a common enemy that overtook this country in the weeks and months that followed. We put aside a lot of political differences, because we wanted and needed to get through that time together as one. My dad never misses an opportunity to give us a lecture on some relative points of US history whenever something like this comes up. And while there are times I admittedly tune him out, sometimes I’m actually listening.

     Less than a year before the attack on 9/11 our country went through the most controversial Presidential Election of all time. Half the country felt like Vice President Gore was trying to steal the election in Florida, and the other half of the country ended up feeling like President Bush did just that. And yet, despite the legal battles, the crazy fights that people were having every single day over who was right and who was wrong , we still came together. 

     A little over four years ago we all had a common enemy again, only this time it didn’t fly into the World Trade Centers or a field in Pennsylvania or the Pentagon in Washington, it was a virus that claimed the lives of over 1 million Americans and changed the lives of many more than that. Did we unify? Not even close. From the very start there were conspiracy theories, people who didn’t believe in it, people on the opposite end of the spectrum that took caution entirely too far, and more disinformation and lies being spread by everyone on every side of the debate.  To this day, many Americans don’t even agree on where it came from and how we handled it.

     I’m not here to debate all of that because as far as I’m concerned I think it will be years before we know the entire truth.  But it does factor into my hope for my first Presidential Election in four years. I hope we learned something from it. 

     I’ve only known a political world dominated by lies, conspiracies, disinformation, fear, hatred and insanity.  My entire generation doesn’t have a memory of debates that are based on policy, actual facts, candidates being rightly held accountable for their real positions and plans moving forward. I’ve gone on YouTube, you can watch highlights from as recently as 2008 & 2012’s Presidential Elections. We agreed on what we wanted for the most part, we just didn’t always agree on how to get there. We all thought for the most part that the same things were important, we just didn’t always have them in the same order or degree of importance. And before that 2008 election especially, we didn’t necessarily hate people who thought differently than we did, we just understood that our ideas are formed by the journeys we all take and it’s different for everyone.

     Just thinking about the last 6 months, if you were to try to sell a movie script on every crazy unbelievable thing that has happened during this election, Hollywood would have said “that’s too crazy even for us.” Well Hollywood, I completely agree. 

     So, in four years can both parties try and put the toothpaste back in the tube? I don’t know. I hope they can. I hope my decision on who to cast my vote for is based on ideas, and truth and visions that look a little closer together than what they do now. I don’t want to hate half of the people in this country because of who they support for President or how they cast their vote on important issues. And it might seem super naïve of me to say this, but it literally starts with each and every one of us. If we don’t like the choices we are being given, make your voice heard. We can be the generation that tells both political parties we’ve had enough! Character, experience, and skill is going to once again become the most important thing when we decide who we elect across the board. As far as I’m concerned both ways have failed us terribly, and until we say “no more” it will only get worse until there is no longer any way back to, if I can quote a once very popular President “a kinder, gentler America”. Or at least one that makes more sense.