Standing Alone

 by Rain Trueax

If you've had enough politics, here is a good place to stop reading and come back next Saturday, which I promise will not be about politics. Today, I am writing about the last week and what I am thinking. I didn't want to do it; but you know sometimes, even when you know you will lose readers, it's important to speak out. I no longer belong to a political party. Until 2018, I had been a lifelong Democrat. I just had enough of them both and am now unaffiliated, where I figure to stay. I do vote. I have always voted. My not belonging to a party means I don't see things like either one, which was always true but just became a bigger deal as things began to change on issues. Whether I left the Democratic party or it left me is a valid question. Some could call the change progress.

We have not had the rain this desert needs for its native plants. Despite weather station promises, this storm had pretty clouds but any rain that fell wasn't on our ridge. We are beginning to water some of the more stressed looking cacti and trees.

When I go to Facebook, it's kind of amazing the different ways those who are on my friend list see what has happened and what comes next. For those who are cheering the new beginning for new policies, I hope they are right. For those in much pain seeing policies they had wanted being torn down, I hope they can let this go-- better than happened during the last four years. We can't let what happens, so far from us, tear what we have apart whenever we have a change of power.

But, it's how it too often is. I see people comment something and rah rah what happened and all that follow cheer them on. Or, in reverse, express anger and fear over it with one after another agreeing. This is because most live in online bubbles. Those who wouldn't agree have been encouraged or even driven to leave. When we only hear one set of ideas, that's safer, right?

 

How we want to see the country operating is so different. In my opinion (not shared by many) it's not that one side of this is evil and the other good. I have met so many on FB that I know are good people on both sides, but they just believe in a different set of issues for what will help the country. I know that's not popular to say as I think both sides see the other as damaging for the country. Anyone who disagrees should be gone. Makes it hard for someone who can see right in different views, when for some that makes them evil too. 

Right after the election, I began to read those saying anyone who worked for the last president should not get hired by anyone. Then came that if they had gotten a degree at Harvard, they should have it taken away when they supported the losing side. This wasn't honorary degrees but those that someone had earned. Would a university do that? Seems unlikely to me but this is an unlikely time in many ways.

In his Inaugural speech, I heard the new president say he wanted to bring the two sides together. I also heard the words in between that suggested how terrible things had been. 

Then, with no waiting at all, nor any listening to what might be another viewpoint, he immediately began to undo all the things the last president had done, as much as he could. So when the sides come together, one has to win? Is compromise impossible in our country today?

As someone who is not in a party, who tends to see things differently than those with partisan ideologies, I find it all kind of shocking. We can't compromise because one side has to get their way and for a while one will. Or maybe we will become a country of only one party, basically a dictatorship where we think we vote but we really can't change anything. It's why many long ago stopped voting. I think voting is key to any republic working.. 

I'd like to be an idealist, but I am too pragmatic for that. I grew up on a farm and have spent most of my life on one. I see consequences to actions and how things don't always work as we might wish. I've been through more pain on that farm that I would have known choosing any other lifestyle, yet it was a wonderful life for me in so many ways-- close to nature and contributing to other people for their food. The price though is emotionally high, and it might've damaged me in ways I don't fully appreciate. It also rewarded me though in ways I do appreciate because understanding consequences hardens a person to some degree and might make moments like our country is going through more remote to me. I don't gloat and I don't mourn. I just go on. Would I have been that way without the years of ranch life, without all I've seen and experienced there? I don't know.

One thing I read, which I believe, is that this country is divided by rural/small town and big city/suburbs. People who live a rural lifestyle have different things that concern them. Jobs are harder to come by. Fuel for their vehicles is more significant if they have to drive 25 or even 50 miles to their job (and yes that is a reality). For city folk (I've been one of those also and currently am) driving isn't such a big deal as everything is closer. Some would say well, let the country folk move to cities. But if they all do, who grows the food? And many country folk cannot afford the high cost of housing in cities. It's not really an option for them.

If you come across those who favored Trump, for many, it likely wasn't him so much as his policies. I've heard many of them say that they don't like how he acts, but it's what he did in policies. He did not, by the way, convince them his way was the right way. They found him after they already believed it.

The thing is though that this became an election about personalities more than policies. So we have the disgusting redneck billionaire versus the kind and caring grandpa or the strong, leader versus the mentally failing old man. How realistic any of that is, only time will tell. I hope for the best because I am not going to spend 4 years wishing for failure to get a different leader in place. I know that most of the hardship of for instance, open borders, won't fall on me. It'll be those competing for the jobs the newcomers also will want.

It's kind of funny (a lot is if you take the time to look at it) that our new president put a bust of Cesar Chavez behind his desk in the oval office. Chavez didn't want open borders. He understood that the farmers would hire cheaper labor, and his own union members would lose out. Does our new president know that? Given his immediate actions, that seems unlikely. He might learn it but will it impact what he has to do based on what he promised in the election? Maybe, maybe not. Again, I hope he'll stop and think about the consequences of open borders. 

(I btw do favor a path to citizenship for those already here, who have worked hard and not gotten into criminal problems, but only when we can control the border. Otherwise, those who think having a lot of cheap labor will be good probably didn't have to compete for hard working, blue collar jobs.)

So, you can see why I had mixed feelings about writing a blog. For those who are in pain over the recent months, I don't want to make it worse. For those who are cheering, the game is not over and the results are not yet in for how this will work out for us all. We should all hope for the best. Positive thinking is for our good and especially those who were already living on the edge before the pandemic pushed them across it. Another election isn't that far away. If you don't like what was done, start working to get people in who will see it your way.

Sunset photos from 1-21-21-- kind of neat numbers.