In a Foreign Land: November 2020

I don’t sleep anymore

I know I’m not alone. Nothing makes you feel less special than an article in the New York Times chronicling something you thought was yours.

According to the Mayo Clinic there are six keys to getting a restful night sleep. Number six is "Manage Your Worries"

As someone said: “Atleast in a nightmare you get some sleep.”

But it’s not just my nightmare, both sides believe this election is the beginning of the end if the other side wins.

Eighty (80%) percent of Biden voters say that if Trump wins we slide into a dictatorship.

Ninety (90%) percent of Trump voters believe if Biden wins we slide into Socialism.

I don’t sleep well because I don't know the rules anymore.

I don't know what to believe.

I don't know where the guardrails are.

There is this fall back position that things always turn out all right, the pendulum swings back, what's the worst that can happen?

I don't even trust metaphors, truisms or conventional wisdom.

I want to believe that there are consequences for bad behavior.

I want to believe if you skirt the law you aren’t rewarded, if you skirt convention you’re not re-elected.

I can read history with all the clarity that distance provides and see that Nixon did something bad, he got caught, his own party turned their back on him, and justice was delivered.

This year isn't about listening to tapes 30 years later. This is Mitch McConnell playing dirty poker in broad daylight, and winning.

This is Lindsay Graham basically saying “read my lips” and then lying. And there are no consequences.

I want to live in a country that believes in something, not someone.

A country that believes in some science, some history, some ideas, some set of facts.

I want to live in a country where institutions matter, where we can rely on medical testing or the CDC or NIH or the WHO or NATO or DOJ to protect us.

But it’s all been sullied now.

I hope this moment in our history is a parenthesis in our national narrative.

A business colleague from Germany reminded me recently that "The world forgives when a country makes bad choices."

But will they forgive if we do it again?

Election Day used to be fun. I would bring the kids into the voting booth, get a sticker.

But now?

Springsteen said earlier this week we are "rudderless and joyless"

Fun has been stripped from our national narrative.

The bar for inspiration is so low that this 3-minute panel discussion from the Newsroom brought me back. Asked what makes America the greatest country in the world? The conservative says Freedom, the liberal says "diversity and opportunity.” But wait for it…

Watch the whole clip --link below-- because the answer isn’t just that we aren't anymore.

But that we can be again.