By the time you read this…
…the first Presidential debate of the 2012 election season will be over–which makes this an overwhelmingly thankful Thursday.
The candidates, I’m sure, are thankful to have it behind them.
Their supporters are thankful that, all in all, they can continue supporting their chosen candidate and hoping, praying, working for the defeat of the other guy. (In all likelihood, neither man did anything so overwhelmingly outrageous during the debate as to cut the legs out from under his campaign. If one of them did, I’ll have to come back and edit this scheduled post!)
The political pundits and newscasters are thankful that the amount of attention they’ve gotten in the past few hours has ratcheted up significantly.
If an informal poll of my friends is any indication, popcorn makers are thankful that sales increased as folks prepared to enjoy the show.
And I am thankful that we live in a country where debate is allowed, encouraged and even celebrated. Where we are free to voice our opinions, however partisan, however well- or ill-informed. Where we are free to judge our leaders loudly, openly, and harshly. Where we get to see some part of this wacky, nearly always almost broken system play itself out in public, with the freedom to watch it or to ignore it.
The system is, indeed, nearly always almost broken, and yet it seems to survive. I’m thankful that I get to hope it will survive this time, too.
As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government. . .except for all those others that have been tried.”
So, I’m thankful for the Greeks and the Athenian democracy, for the Barons at Runnymede and the Magna Carta, and–although their influence on our founders has been disputed–for the Iroquois League of Peace and Power. (I will step outside my original intention in this post not to take sides, for just a moment, and say that if we’d been influenced a little more by the Iroquois’ reported inclusion of women in our governing processes, we might be better off today!)
It’s an amazing thing we do every four years.
It’s maddening, hilarious, expensive, lofty and idealistic, down and dirty, boring, fascinating. totally insane and immensely important.
Thankful may not be a strong enough word.
