Diana Shaw Clark

Despite the turbulence roiling the polls, we're still tipped to win.

Yet every day some learned observer insists that regardless the election results, America-at-large is doomed to defeat. They predict with confidence that the upshot of this historically bitter and embittering campaign will be an irreversible dive in the tenor and tone of public discourse.

You've seen these pieces. You've heard the commentaries. And perhaps you've either bought into it or feel more or less reconciled to accepting it.

Stop right there. Just stop.

Is this who we're letting ourselves to become? Moral defeatists? Are we really going to allow this singularly smarmy campaign to infect our national psyche to the point where we're prepared to bathe in mud in perpetuity? If so, if we accept that from here on in, every campaign will be about sex tapes and such, even when our ticket prevails in a few day's time, who in fact will have won?

Pride alone should ensure we say no, that we furiously wipe away the complacency that greases this slippery slope. It's on each of us to help our country haul itself up from the muck and restore the kind of discourse that embodies the values that have made us through the ages, a sanguine nation, a nation that thrice elected a President who campaigned against fear, and twice elected a President whose motto was HOPE.

I can understand it's hard to get into that frame of mind when every time you refresh your newsfeed some new squib stokes your anxiety, which has already been heightened by overexposure to this cycle's cavalcade of unseemly spectacles.

But the fate of our nation turns not only on the outcome on Tuesday, but on how we handle the aftermath. And for that I implore you to prepare now, to get into the right frame of mind to help restore confidence and optimism in each other and in our future. We'll be too winded, too jaded and too ready to move on if we leave it until the 9th. The time for attitude adjustment is now.

Don't delay. Start today.

  • Listen. The remarkably reassuring podcast Reckonings features stories of moral transitions and personal reconciliations. Its defining blurb: How Do We Fundamentally Change Our Hearts and Minds? is altogether apt for our purpose. Scroll through the themes and find those that would be most meaningful for you. http://www.reckonings.show/
  • Watch. Nothing beats humor to cleanse the mind. See if the world doesn't seem better to you after you've watched any of the screwball comedies of Cary Grant (Bringing up Baby), Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve), or Ruben Mamoulian (Love Me Tonight). If you can't quite go cold turkey on politics, try Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
  • Compile. Make a playlist, clap on the noise cancelling headphones and steep yourself in sounds that foster calm and contentment.
  • Picture This: Rudimentary, but it works. Whenever you feel that rush of anxiety, see it as a train hurtling toward you. Hold steady and inhale. Now picture that train veering onto a switch and onto another track. Wave as it races past. Exhale.

And prepare to work with those closest to you, and those who've become estranged, to assist President Hillary Clinton and Vice President Tim Kaine with the spiritual regeneration of America.

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