by Lynn Mandaville

I hope I’m not wrong, but it would appear that the Clown Car that carries the Cult of Trump has lost a tire or two in last week’s midterm elections.

In my former home state of MI, women carried the day for Democrats in the most significant offices. In my new home state of AZ, where such winners were a mix of men and women, blue was also the color of the day.

These results, as well as the fact that many election-deniers were defeated, particularly in AZ, bode well for a nation who has had it up to their eyeballs with the drama queen whiner that is our former president, and the wannabes who rode his tattered coattails into the election.

I still consider it a sad day when I could no longer call myself an independent voter.

That designation died when John McCain died, and Jeff Flake decided that he wouldn’t seek re-election to his AZ senate seat.  Both were honorable men for whom I voted

It became apparent that the dumbing of America had been successful, at least to the extent that nearly half of its voters ascribed to lies and misinformation told by the likes of FoxNews, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and the Big Liar himself, Donald J. Trump.

It became apparent when the likes of Josh Hawley and Boebert began their diatribes against certain innocent children’s books in libraries and schools.

It became abundantly clear when civility and propriety were tossed out the window when Republican candidates refused to concede lost elections and extend good wishes to the winners in favor of perpetuating the Big Lie about the 2020 election.

And the clincher was the January 6^th insurrection at our nation’s capital, which some Republicans described as peaceful protest despite their being in the midst of the mingled horror and terror. 

Those things combined – even knowing full well that Democrats were not without their own lies and bad behavior – added up to my strong hesitation when I changed my voter registration card to read Democrat instead of Independent.

If it isn’t clear from this writing, I don’t believe all Democrats to be paragons of virtue.  They are, after all, human, and politicians with a penchant for embellishment, hyperbole and plain-out prevarication.

I have, however, discerned a distinct difference in the preponderance of those vices in recent years among Republicans over Democrats.

I have noticed, too, an increase in the vitriol of TV campaign ads from some Republicans, and a preponderance of fear tactics in their ads, instead of sticking to issues and accomplishments made by the candidates themselves.

While Democrats have not been without negative aspects as the election grew closer, in AZ the Republican ads were highly misleading and peppered with lies and innuendo.  (It is regrettable that a bad apple like Blake Masters has such a big mouth among his fellows.)

It should be no surprise to Republicans around the country that the citizenry has reached critical mass when it comes to rejecting the bloviating egotists and the clownish displays of ignorance by certain candidates whose malapropisms are more frightening than entertaining.

After sharing my feelings of dejection with fellow volunteers at the Chandler Library as the election drew nearer, I now feel a shred of hope for the country.

We really believed for a few days that Kari Lake would be our new, inept, and delusional governor.  We feared that we would see in elections throughout the county the death of our republic, the total demise of faith in our electoral process.

As it turns out, women and the myriad of men who support their human right to dominion over their bodies, turned out in great numbers to counteract a Supreme Court decision that has overridden the right to privacy over all of our medical records, including medical procedures called abortions, that was held for almost 50years.

Young people turned out to halt a Handmaid’s Tale slippery slope toward forced births, of regulating birth and birth control, of ending same-sex marriage, and complicating voter rights instead of easing the safe, secure voting process.

I will continue to bemoan the fact that politicians on all fronts seem to think we govern according to “winners and losers,” instead of coalitions of men and women who strive to make better the lives of all Americans.

Sometimes it seems some politicians (not saying who, Ted Cruz) are more interested in being willfully contrary than reasonable.

Sometimes winning, it seems, is more desirable than finding solutions to pressing problems of a divided nation.

It’s old fashioned, I know, to seek truth, even if it means admitting our own wrong mindedness.

I fear it’s out of fashion to admire, even celebrate, another person for their depth of knowledge, education, and open-mindedness in the face of our own insecurities.

I know that collectively we’ve lost our ability to really communicate with each other, by which I mean actively listening to one another and understanding one another despite disagreements.

I know that social media has made dialogue nothing more than a series of inadequate, not-thought-through blurts, like Neanderthal grunts and gestures.

But I do see glimmers of hope.

As members of an older generations are prone to do, I see our hope in the youngsters.

I see it in the pure, sweet, naïve idealism of my grandsons whose worldview hasn’t yet been distorted.

I see it in the acts of generosity performed by the alphabet soup of “Gens” in our midst.

I see it in the aphorisms posted on social media meant to inspire and soothe our better angels.

It’s unfortunate that election cycles become the barometer of American culture.

It’s unfortunate that politicians come to stand for ourselves.

For among us living, breathing, listening, worshipping, everyday human beings lie our most basic, better selves.

Maybe this election bodes well for a resurgence of sanity, of rejecting conspiracy theories, of calling out lies, of renewing our commitment to education at all levels, of accepting “the least of us.” and, above all, common decency among us all.