I’m not good at hysteria when it comes to politics. What I felt last night was okay, here we go again, z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z. Haven’t we seen this movie over and over?

I’m not interested in plunging back into the daily political drama, but I did have some thoughts about last night that I should share as the gloating and hysteria mount over last night’s election.

I’m sure you got the bad news, but I’m not so sure you know about the good news.

The Democrats deserved what they got.  They failed their leader, and they failed us. They also failed democracy or at least revealed its flaws. America is a sick puppy right now. It needs some loving care.

But there was some real news. As I see it, history was made on two fronts last night.

One was a resounding whup on the side of the head of the Democratic Party by all kinds of voters, red and blue.

On the other side of politics, women and people of color made history last night, bringing diversity to life and taking leadership roles in some of America’s biggest cities and some states as well. In Boston and New York, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Dearborn, African Americans and Asians were elected by huge margins.

They are the inevitable future.

Joe Biden will not be running for re-election. There’s no dressing it up.

The Republicans have absolutely nothing to boast about, so of course, they spent the night gloating.

Their party is channeling those Haitian gangs, permitting themself to be kidnapped by a liar, a thief,  and a madman who has also failed and can’t take them to victory and who had almost nothing to do with Virginia or New Jersey.

His ransom is absolute loyalty, a creepy and wildly unpopular position.

Nothing in these elections suggests the country is seeking a hateful and corrupt leader.

Perhaps I’m living in a fog, but I see in front of me two political parties competing to commit suicide by repeating their mistakes over and over again. The system is imploding.

The country is in a volatile mess right now, and people want a change.  The pandemic continues, the fanatic anti-vaccine army fights on, prices are soaring, supplies are chaotic, people aren’t ready to go back to work, the shadow of Afghanistan still looms.

In a year, we will still be in a volatile mess, and our constipated and partisan political system can’t or won’t do much about it. These problems are complex and challenging and require a great deal of patience, something in short supply in American politics. I wouldn’t want to be the next President either. We are on our own for now.

But you can take this to the bank: Everything will be different in a year; nothing is obvious. Many of these problems will disappear, new ones will emerge.

Even in good times, Americans don’t look backward for leaders; they always want something new.

It seems our civic system is caught in a wheel, a shift from one side to the other and then back again.

Just what good are they? They talk a good game but don’t deliver. There are no crystal balls in politics.

If any political party ever deserved a thumping more than the Democrats, I don’t know about it. It might be the Republican’s turn to fail again, as they did in 2020. They also love to die.

In control of the White House and Congress, the Democrats managed to blow it yet another time, too busy in-fighting, posturing, and sucking up to lobbyists to give anybody a reason to vote for them. Again.

Gaining power and blowing it seems to be their thing.

I, for one, will not be standing around waiting for politicians to make my life brighter. I have my plan to do good and more suitable and more promising. That is my calling and my passion now.

This new and diverse political movement is only growing. It isn’t going to go away.

Both political parties have failed us.

People in the media forget that a year is a very long time in American politics. Biden’s victory seems like a hundred years ago, and his defeat will seem just as confusing and remote.

It’s the Republican’s turn (again) to blow the opportunity they have to govern and solidify their control of American politics.

Instead, they seem to be on the brink of re-nominating Donald Trump, whose genius for political self-destruction is unparalleled. He gets to screew it up again, and he almost certainly will if he gets the chance.

The sad truth about most national elections in America is that they don’t matter right now. Nothing changes. Whoever wins will inherit the same paralyzed and unworkable system. Politics in America is all about one party preventing the other from accomplishing anything. We are divided and paying the price.

If the Republicans take control of Congress, they’ll be in the same pickle. I haven’t heard any great ideas coming from them. Too bad, what an opportunity.

What all of this means is that our country is having a nervous breakdown. It will get better. But not for a while.

One party unable to unite to pass popular legislation, the other up to their necks in critical race theory, fighting to keep a pandemic alive, fend off change, stifle African-American voting, and battle for Dr. Seuss.

Take your poison.  The posturing of progressives and conservatives rings hollow to me. It means nothing and stands for nothing on its own.

Nothing is clear; nothing is resolved. I don’t for a second believe Donald Trump will run for President, and if I am wrong and he does, he will not be re-elected. In a divided country, we keep taking turns electing people who can’t do anything but let all of us down.

Every new leader fails because the system beneath him or no longer works. So everybody gets angrier and angrier. That’s not a train I’m getting on.

At this point, I’m not sure I can even say which one is worse than the other. Drink this poison in a bottle or take it as a pill.

Usually, in times like this, the media proclaims the end of life as we know it, and pundits evoke the Apocalypse. People start to freak out. That the pundits are wrong repeatedly – almost every time – doesn’t seem to slow them or get them to re-think.

The future of our country is wide open. Somewhere out there is a leader who makes sense and cares about people. This is the time for them to rise.

I’d pay attention to somebody like Pete Buttigieg, someone who comes from outside the system, is a compassionate conservative, is gay and interesting,  knows the midwest, is bright, and is a listener. He has Biden’s gift of being likable and may be more effective in running for office and governing.

So might one of these African-American or Asian mayors. We need a new face, and there are lots of them rising. The future is not knowable today.

Because our politics is so screwed up, no one really can win right now, so we must move forward with our lives and leave them to their cannibalism for the moment.

If the Republicans have anything even slightly better to offer than Biden, I haven’t seen it. Diversity is here to say, no matter what the White Republican Christian Nationalists think or want.

The Democrats in Washington are a disgrace, as are the Republicans in Washington. The system is broken. I believe a true leader will emerge from the muck and bring us to a better place. I quite sincerely believe that.

It’s time for the greatest of all American stories, the hero. That will be a story worth reading about and getting hysterical over. That’s the American script.

So in the meantime,  we will keep fighting with one another while the bridges fall apart and the poor get poorer.

My idea, as if I’ve written, is to go in a different direction. Don’t get mad. Get good.

There is a lot of good to be done in this world, and unlike our politicians, we are accomplishing things and improving people’s lives. The first political party to embrace that idea and deliver will ultimately be the ones to make history.

This election was both inevitable and predictable. The Virginia race was also won fair and square, with no cheating, stealing, or lying. In a democracy, that’s something to be respected and listened to, rather than wringing hands and tearing garments.

The old America is fighting for its life. But if you look at the election closely and beyond one or two states, you can see the new one rising quickly and powerfully.  This is politics; the gates are open.