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Jim Newton
Itasca
If you're an investor, you know the value of stock dividends, but some dividends are more like a mirage: the "peace dividend" after the Soviet Union fell, for example. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Donald Regan soberly stated in a 1989 interview, that the peace dividend is not going "to be some huge sum that falls in our lap as though we won a sweepstakes or something."
I had hoped the 2020 Biden-Harris election win would produce a "Decency Dividend." It didn't.
I didn't overestimate their ability to deliver, I underestimated our resistance to restore civility.
Leaders once rose above party affiliation. During Watergate, we had Tennessee Senator and Watergate Committee Chairman Howard Baker. When Richard Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford healed the whole nation, not just Republicans. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, both Bush presidents, and Barack Obama each had their turn as comforter-in-chief. Not everything has to be about politics.
Tragic events used to foster goodwill, even among those who disagree. Such overtures are now met with conspiracy theories and general contentiousness.
Growing up, I heard that we deserve the candidates we elect, but I disagreed. We can only inform ourselves, I concluded, with what we're fed by the media. My mind has changed.
Today, candidates show us who they are earlier in the process, but we lack the will to stop them. That's on us.