Ways to stay sane
This is the end of Week Three of the 45/47 regime, although is it his regime? It seems more like a takeover by a South African who’s bent on world domination, whose ego is even bigger and more dangerous than the figurehead in office.
The nominations of excruciatingly unqualified people to Cabinet posts are hard to bear. The threat of deportations of innocent immigrants is painful to contemplate. And at the end of Week Two, there was the hostile takeover of the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Amid all of this, a young woman asked, “How are you staying sane?”
Eight years ago, I raged at the TV daily. A good deal of it was residual anger over the fact that so many Americans could vote for a person who clearly cared only about himself. Every day brought a fresh hell of nonsense or danger. Sometimes both.
It’s a good thing my blood pressure has never been a health concern (thanks, dad) or I would have been in crisis. “That’s not true!” I yelled. “You are wrecking democracy!” I screamed. “You are an idiot!” I bellowed.
Around March 2017, I realized I couldn’t go on this way. This anger accomplished nothing. So, I went on a media diet. I watched more political comedy, and thankfully, discovered the daily newsletter, “Letters from an American” by Heather Cox Richardson.
During the ensuing COVID pandemic, I wrote Senators Grassley and Ernst, and Representative Feenstra on a weekly basis. Their answers, if they came at all, which was hardly ever, were formulaic and weak, but I wrote anyway. I had to do something.
Last week, I watched half an hour of the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. nomination process and found myself tipping into the anger-danger zone again. The man has no medical credentials. At all.
Would you seek medical attention from an English major if you were having a heart attack? This man has vaccinated his own children, but counsels others to abstain. He visited Samoa (on whose authority?) on an anti-vaccination mission against measles, a trip which resulted in the deaths of 83 people, most of them children under 5.
I tried watching again on the second day of the nomination process, and I realized that, for me, visual stimuli spike my anger higher than a SpaceX rocket.
What I’m saying is this: I am staying away from almost all televised news. Televised news, by its nature, is all about grabbing attention. It is meant to deliver a dopamine hit. Segments are short and cannot wade into the weeds, and it’s in the weeds that we learn the “why” of what’s happening and the larger implications. Televised news assiduously ignores the implications.
Those of us who remember the dawn of 24/7 cable news thought that we’d be better informed, but what has happened instead is that we get rehash and blather. There will almost never be enough new information to fill one 24-hour day. When the news isn’t being recycled, it is opined and most of the opinions aren’t worth much. No one can predict the future. No one knows what’s going to happen next.
So, I am reading instead. Of course, some of it still sparks outrage and despair, but instead of watching spin or capitulation, I’m getting information. Sometimes the writer provides suggestions or tips for what to do or how to cope. Some writers provide their sources so that their work can be fact-checked.
Where to find such information? The Substack app offers a wealth of local, regional, and national writers who are doing solid reporting. You can subscribe to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative (free or paid) on Substack and reap a bounty of excellent journalism:
Some national writers worth reading on Substack are Steve Schmidt, Simon Rosenburg, Robert Reich, Judd Legum, Joyce Vance, Jay Kuo, Robert Hubbell, and Simon Rosenberg to name a few. If you (like me) occasionally enjoy some snark and swearing with your news, there’s Jeff Tiedrich.
Punchbowl News (punchbowl.news) is an excellent collection of news from Washington, D.C. They also produce The Daily Punch podcast, which offers 10-15 minutes of the day’s upcoming events on Capitol Hill. Again, if you enjoy snark and swearing, listen to The Daily Beans podcast (https://www.dailybeanspod.com/). Their tagline is: News. With Swearing. I call it Outrage With Laughter.
And call or write your federal representatives regularly. It’s more effective to call. If you’re shy or uncertain about what to say, use the 5 Calls app (https://5calls.org/) to help state your concerns, objections, and outrage.
Stay sane and safe out there. Be better informed. Use your voice. Resist.