Between Suze Orman, Ali Velshi and Oprah Winfrey, I've taken to midnight sugar feedings. It's helped me stomach their fiscal rants, bleak reports and dismal optimism. And so for weeks now, just like a junkie taps her arm for a good vein, I've tapped the Ben & Jerry's carton -- hoping for a good fix. Any fix. A last ditch effort to face the economic crisis. The global warming crisis. Not to mention, thanks to this election, my (early onset) mid life crisis.
But let's face it. These are stressful times. The kind of stressful that's motivated inflated government taxes -- and left us all with inflated waistlines. So what do we do now? To feel less guilty for what we've blindly spent? To make sense of this low point we've reached as a nation? To feel better -- even if it means pretending -- when we can't seem to put down the ice cream? We do the next best thing. We take a long look into the skinny mirror.
Yes, the skinny mirror. The same mirror sly department stores, desperate to make sales, positioned in fitting rooms for years. The wondrous mirror that reflected a better, be it fleeting, version of ourselves. Instantly we were ten pounds slimmer. And though we knew it was too good to be true, it still worked. And so we kept looking --not daring to blink until we got home -- because it was only there that the truth set in.
Today, as America's shopping for our next president, it's no different. The forgiving mirror that once stripped us of our excess weight, is now during this final month before the election, stripping down America's current state of affairs as well. But this time it's not just pounds we're losing, it's the facts.
Simple facts like:
• The past is not just the past. Recent history matters. We started a war with the wrong country.
•While McCain (technically) is not George Bush, he did vote with him over 95% of the time.
• Wanting and needing are different. Example: Republicans only don't want a government regulated economy...until they need it.
• Some level of tax is necessary. How else are we to pay for roads, disaster relief, national defense, or just as we discovered in the past month, bailouts?
• This country was founded on the separation of church and state. So upholding that principle does not signify a liberal push towards immorality.
So how can some of us continue to ignore these truths when as a nation we ultimately know we can't afford to?
Perhaps it's because shocking events have a history of eliciting inappropriate responses. For some it's laughing upon seeing an elderly person fall, and for others like my corporate friends, it's playing a game called "Who Lost The Most In Their 401k Today?" This is where co-workers collectively gather the nerve to check their vested balances; and in a not so surprise twist, the winner is the one whose portfolio took the biggest beating. Clearly it's the smallest of victories, where the prize is nothing more than a few validating gasps combined with a couple sure sucks to be you looks, followed by some sympathetic pats on the back for good measure -- all in exchange for watching your life's savings plummet. Still it's their most effective defense mechanism to face their fiscal reality and get through yet another bleak day in corporate America.
But just as the skinny mirror allowed us to eat more than we should, it also let us get away with, for eight years at least, spending a lot more than we should. A classic example of the American financial identity crisis. In the same way we want to be thin when we are fat, we also want to be seen as rich even when we're not. To be seen as rich means to spend as if you're rich. But unfortunately it doesn't stop there. In time it means voting like you're rich too. These are the middle class citizens who recycle the most commonly used sound byte -- that they're Republicans because of the tax breaks -- oblivious to the fact, that given their own salary, it doesn't help them. The skinny mirror is good that way. It can shed dollars, along with facts, and in some cases even race.
As an Indian American myself, I am constantly confused when my fellow Indians support a Republican administration (note: only 60% of Indian Americans are registered Democrats). My only conclusion is that after years of the first generation's struggle to assimilate and be recognized as Americans, they suddenly see themselves differently. Simply put, they don't see themselves as Indian anymore. How else could they, even with their desired tax credits, continue to support an administration that has given ten billion dollars to Pakistan, earmarked to help fight Al Qaeda and finding Osama Bin Laden, but which we now know was really used to fund Pakistan's own war against India -- Yes, the home of our not so distant roots. Isn't turning a blind eye to that conspicuous detail the ultimate identity crisis?
McCain has repeatedly said that when he looks into Putin's eyes he sees three letters: K. G. B. When I look into McCain's eyes I too see three letters: O. L. D.
That's because a real mirror doesn't cover up the wrinkles, the comb-over begging for a transplant (or was that just him at the debates?), the scowls, or even the facial expressions trying so desperately to control his temper. The real mirror can't photoshop away the fact, that given his age, his Vice-Presidential selection has a greater likelihood of becoming his successor during his presidency if elected. In fact, it amplifies that a vice-presidential candidate's experience does matter.
A real mirror won't let you turn a blind eye. We live in a time where we can stop and stare at a car accident in traffic but we cant stop and stare at the reality that faces us every day. The reality that reminds us that we are in a war with the wrong country. That threatening Roe v. Wade jeopardizes women's rights. That we are moving away from global independence towards global dependence. That Einstein was right: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is mere insanity.
As a woman who opposes war, who believes global warming does exist and has lead us to the point of famine and disease, who wants a global economy that supports environmental jobs, and who wants to receive social security as much as she wants universal health care, not to mention equal pay as men for her work, it's been too hard to shift my gaze any longer and stay silent. It's because I've let the current government abuse my allegiance for almost a quarter of my life that I can no longer sit back. It's time to take ownership of both my weight (good-bye ice cream) and the political climate. Which is why I say, "America, it's time. Step away from the skinny mirror."
Let's face it. Shopping for a president is in many ways the same as shopping for a suit. With the exception that we can't return our choice, even if we see it in a different light -- or worse yet -- for what it really is, as early as the next morning. Come November 5th America, we'll just have to live with it. And that's one fact even the skinny mirror can't deny.