Your Mother
I once got into a debate with my sister about which system of the human body was most critical. I was Team Nervous System all the way, while she leaned more towards the Digestive & Urinary Systems considering their role in sustaining life. After a few minutes of lively dialogue, we both chuckled since severe damage to any would be life-altering if not fatal.
Like the human body, the United States is complex yet the Democratic and Republican parties have convinced million of US voters otherwise. Both parties oversimplify problems and solutions. Data presented is biased and/or out of context. Evidence of past successes or failures is at best loosely correlated. Campaign speeches and ads are almost exclusively subjective and focused on fear-mongering.
The sad truth is that our two political parties care about votes as far as they lead them to power, about legislating as far as laws can ensure their future success, and about our judiciary as far as it will allow them to prosecute their opponents. Neither party will take serious action to control our astronomical deficit because voters like free lunches, nor will they fix our broken healthcare system because it’s not profitable to do so. Neither party will address our national security, be it close to home on our borders or on the global stage, because it offers fertile ground to play the blame game.
As disheartening as this may be, I still submitted my vote in time to count on Tuesday. How did I decide? I reverted to a simple yet powerful mental exercise used to help decide between two seemingly equally good or bad choices… who would I trust my own mother to? For example, in the US investment management industry all advisers have to ensure the interests of the investor are primary to any recommendation made, but people are people and thus the question boils down to who you would trust making decisions for your mother. When a person’s own mother was at the center of the decision, the right choice emerged almost always and almost immediately.
I asked myself which candidate I would allow to make decisions for my mother, literally. I didn’t take into account their pitches or promises and I didn’t differentiate between one party or another (see above). It came down to whether I would have Mr. Trump or Mrs. Harris care for my mother. I don’t mean Mr. Trump and the Republican Party nor Mrs. Harris and the Democratic Party… I mean the person, individually.
This is not about trivializing such an important decision. It is the opposite. It is acknowledging that governing our country is extremely complex. It is accepting that true progress requires compromise. It is being honest about the power grabs at play on all sides. It is about not deluding myself that one candidate or one party will save our country.
In this set of circumstances, which individual would you trust your own mother to, literally?