What if something nice was accomplished? What if it was lets-have-a-celebration nice? Do we care if in the murky backroom it was the result of blackmail? Does the end justify the means? Right now, we are one foot over the threshold of a very different political landscape. We may have to ask ourselves very different questions.

What about transactions: you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours? Are they commonplace or unacceptable? If unacceptable, whom do we blame? How about just blaming the sucker who did his part and did not receive a return? Do we love the winner at any cost?

But wait, every scam artist offers what we most need and badly want. Which of us would walk away? Which would rationalize and take the bait?

Those who believe interaction is merely transaction do not like us for our traits or accomplishments. They study us for our weaknesses. All bribes are not dollar bills; some are “love bombs” thrown to manipulate. Sops are cheap gifts labeled insider information shared not to inform but to manipulate. Retribution is wrong because it is the most blindly selfish. Without an ounce of concern for the other, it is done to satisfy something real or perceived by the doer.

I received a letter in which the writer called me “a talented writer who had been conned.” He hoped I would “see the light.” He hoped for me.

Wow, could it be that both sides have the same wish for the other side? Could it be that we as Americans have more in common? What if, in the voting booth, we pulled different levers for the same reason? Maybe this famous divide is not so wide. Maybe our values as Americans, our preferred outcomes, are the same. We may agree on almost every specific point – jobs, housing, education, raising kids, how we treat our veterans, being honest and responsible – and only disagree on which candidate was able to accomplish the goals. Maybe we recognized there were bad guys in the mix but disagreed on which ones the bad guys were.

I want to believe the bad guys are the minority. The ones who use their personal complaints as cudgels; the ones who can talk the talk but only use their talents and position to serve themselves, and the promiser whose word is no good.

This is a time when we must stand together. This is a moment to understand each other. I want to understand this: we are Americans, and we believe in being helpful and decent, in educating our children, sharing, following the rules, and being good neighbors. I believe, regardless of how they voted, the majority of Americans would show up at a fire, get out a rowboat in a flood, and run toward a drowning child.

Could it really be as simple as that? The great divide healed merely by addressing the task at hand and forgetting the politicians? I believe the bad guys are now, and always were, a minority. I believe they are eventually recognized whether near to us or far away. I believe we do wish the same wish for each other.

Carole Owens
Executive Editor