Ah, November.
In Arizona, this means pretending to enjoy the fine autumn weather and wearing scarves despite the 80-degree temperatures (unless you’re a hipster, in which case scarves are a year-round fixture in your wardrobe).
Luckily, November also brings the end of election season — finally.
After a year and a half of partisan bickering and the unending barrage of advertisements, push polls and newspaper columns surrounding elections, I am ready for a nice long break from politics.
Sure, the break will only last a month at most — regardless of tomorrow’s outcome. After the election comes transition and then Inauguration Day, and after that, starts the 6-month period of governance followed by the start of midterm election season.
What joy.
But before we go to the polls and stay up all night watching the coverage on C-SPAN — OK, maybe that part is just me — let’s take a moment to reflect on the state of political parties.
It would be extraordinarily helpful to everyone's sanity if we stopped pretending that the vast and seemingly impenetrable differences between the Republican and Democratic parties is akin to a struggle for the eternal soul of the United States.
Neither party is perfect (and neither are any of the third parties).
Neither party wants to destroy this country.
Both major parties merely seek what it is political parties do: win elections and maintain political power.
If they can help the country move forward and if they can enact beneficial policies, these things corollary to political parties’ basic function: winning elections.
Neither party's platform is gospel. Neither party's platform is heresy.
The parties exist for one reason and one reason only: to win elections.
The party platforms differ because ideologies differ, and if we as a country were able to think beyond binaries and embrace a greater range of nuance in political views, perhaps third parties would have more success.
But it seems that we are not so advanced in our thinking.
After all, each of the three presidential debates generated more jokes and memes than substantive discussion of the issues.
The two men vying with each other for arguably the most important job in our country spent a combined total of five hours talking on live TV about health care, the economy, foreign policy and education — the things that can truly make a difference in the lives of people around us.
And instead of calling them out when they did not provide adequate, specific answers to the questions or truly engaging with our ideological opponents, we talked about truly insignificant moments: Big Bird, binders and bayonets, oh my.
The best example of true governance without regard for petty and destructive partisanship was Gov. Chris Christie R-N.J. in the wake of the havoc and ruin brought by Superstorm Sandy.
Christie tweeted last Wednesday: “Today I’m touring (New Jersey) with President Obama. Yes, he’s a Democrat, and I’m a Republican. We’re also adults, and this is how adults behave.”
Agree or disagree with Christie’s politics, that’s the kind of leadership all parties ought to aspire to provide to the American people.
In any case, if you want the right to complain about the state of politics and government in this country, voting is a prerequisite.
And I can safely promise you there will be no shortage of complaints in the coming 48 hours.
Isn’t democracy beautiful?
Reach the columnist at skthoma4@asu.edu or follow her at SavannahKThomas.
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@
