The Golden Bridge

Weekly Shot #26

The holiday season should be a time to wipe the stain of the past three months off. A time to let political bygones be bygones. A time to move the fuck on from the election and get back to what really matters – family, friends, good food, good drink. Yet there has been discourse online, and in mainstream media, that one should not move on, that one should hold a grudge, that one should disassociate with family based on who they voted for. I am thinking of the clip of the Yale psychiatrist on MSNBC in particular.

I’m no psychiatrist, but disengaging from family based on who they voted for sounds like one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard. I can think of a thousand reasons I would cut off a family member that has nothing to do with who they voted for. Giving my kid sugar before sending them home (I’m talking to you Mom), not forcing my kid to nap when watching them (I’m talking to you Mom), letting my kid watch TV whenever they want (I’m talking to you Mom), are all valid reasons to cut a family member off. But politics? The person you voted for? Hell no.

I am not shocked at this take from the Yale psychiatrist though. This is the natural conclusion to the discourse of using such heightened political jargon like the other side is fascist or communist – two overused words that now have zero meaning. If anyone did their due diligence and actually knew what those two words did in the 20^th century they wouldn’t have the balls to actually use them in today’s political landscape. Both of those philosophies killed HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of people. So far we’ve gone through 4 years a piece with Democrats and Republicans in office and we’re all still here. A shocker if you’ve been watching either Fox or MSNBC. But the country hasn’t burned. The country and its people still stand.

The above clip was on Joy Reid’s show on MSNBC, a network that for all intents and purposes is just a mouthpiece for the Democratic party. That same network hosts another show called Morning Joe, hosted by Mika and Joe Scarborough. These two hosts have been some of the biggest culprits when it comes to this jargonized language around Donald Trump and politics in general.

If you don’t have time to watch this clip, let me just break it down real quick. Joe Scarborough goes on a little rant saying that, “If you are voting for Donald Trump in 2024 you are knowingly voting for a fascist, for a racist, for a person who wants to take America back 200 years,” all while a corpse like Al Sharpton smiles like an idiot. The irony of talking about morals sitting next to a guy like Al Sharpton is just a chef’s kiss.

So it was rather strange when Mika and Joe revealed on their show last week that they had met with Donald Trump after his election win. You would think that someone who is such a danger to this country should be met with armed uprising, not a meeting. The hypocrisy of Mika and Joe is not lost on me, yet I think the majority of the people who are giving these two hosts shit (on both sides of the political spectrum) for having the gall to meet with the President-elect are actually the problem. They are the same people who would agree with the Yale psychiatrist.

Here comes a hot take - Mika and Joe meeting with Trump is a good thing. Putting differences aside is the only way forward. You can call out hypocrisy as much as you want but only to a point of good faith. For years people have railed on the mainstream media for being insanely biased. They are right in doing so. But now that two MSNBC hosts have decided to build a bridge to the other side, all we want to do is tear it down. Ever since Joe Scarborough said that Joe Biden was “the most cogent” he’s ever seen him, while we all watched Biden’s mental faculties decline, I thought he and his co-host were a lost cause. I thought they were so entrenched in their position they would say anything. But the fact that they are willing to look like hypocrites now instead of digging their heels in and sticking to stupid ideas is a good thing. Because this is THE POINT OF POLITICS. Talking it out instead of civil war. Good ideas live, bad ideas die, instead of us, physically.

An MSNBC coming more to the middle is a good thing. Both sides forgiving the bullshit they said on the campaign trails is a good thing, but even more so for the side that won. You don’t laugh at and ridicule the people you beat; you make amends with them. This is War 101. Sun Tzu calls it the Golden Bridge - a way to allow someone you’ve beaten to save face. Again, if you know anything about history, this is where the allies went wrong after World War 1. Germany was humiliated, humiliation lead to anger, that anger led to a real fascist. It’s not an excuse, just an honest (and very simplified) accounting of the way humans work.

So forgiveness is the name of the game here. It’s one of the reasons I despised Donald Trump for continuously saying he did not lose the 2020 election. It was not only a sore loser move, but worse, it gave no one a Golden Bridge. No one could forgive and forget. No one could move the fuck on. Everyone felt the need to dig in to their political foxholes and fight. But I believe I know forgiveness, real forgiveness, because I’ve been close to it.

My Grandma was the strongest woman I’ve ever known. Anything I know about true goodness comes from her. Before I was born my Uncle Michael was at a bar drinking with a known associate. Michael tended to get into trouble, especially at bars. When this guy asked Michael if he wanted a ride home Michael declined. He said he’d walk, that this associate was clearly too drunk to drive. He made the responsible decision for once in his life. On that walk home the associate was so drunk he hit Michael as he walked home, leaving him to die in a ditch, too drunk to notice or care.

My Uncle survived the accident after months in a coma. He was a quadriplegic from that moment on. He could only move his head, and just barely. By the time I was born the only Uncle Michael I ever knew was a 6’7” man in a wheelchair.

As a father, I know what I would do to the person that did that to my kid. I’d find them, tie them up, and flay their skin with a butter knife. Well, at least that would be my first thought. But then I would think about my Grandma. Because what she did is what true forgiveness is all about. Instead of taking retribution or legal action, after the man was let out of jail she went on a tour of sorts. Her, Michael, and the man went around to colleges...together. They spoke about what happened, about the pain drinking and driving cost not only Michael and my Grandma, but the man who hit him. They spoke about how to forgive. They spoke about how to move on. In a way, they spoke about the Golden Bridge. And here we are, in the year 2024, talking about not forgiving people for who they voted for?

Weak. Soft. Childish. A spit in the face to my Grandma, someone who truly forgave.

If my Grandma could do what she did, you can sit your ass next to someone who voted for Trump or Kamala and eat fucking turkey.

So in the spirit of the holidays, now’s the time to make the Golden Bridge in your personal life. Let all the political bullshit go. Let the other side, whichever it is, save face. Let the people in your life get back to being people in your life and not political caricatures. Because when you die, your headstone isn’t going to read “This guy Voted for Trump in 2024” or “White Dude for Kamala 2024”. If it does, then you haven’t done much in your life. Don’t let that be the case.

P.S. - Just kidding Mom, I’d never cut you off for any of that.

P.P.S. - Turkey sucks and we all know it.