Election Day lacks optimism

We could all really use some good news. Unfortunately, this is Election Day 2016.

I hate to be Mr. Gloomy, but I've never walked into a polling place feeling more pessimistic about our prospects than I feel today. And that goes for whichever way this maddening mess eventually works out, especially at the top of the ballot.

OK, so the election cycle hasn't been all bad. For example, my massive campaign mailer collage entitled 'Wrong for Iowa” is coming along nicely. Now, if I could just find a state-funded parking lot in Des Moines with heated sidewalks where I could display it.

On Sunday, a photo went viral showing a backer of the Republican presidential nominee wearing a T-shirt with the words 'Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.” Many were appalled, for good reason. But the threat of being chased by a mob may be just the motivation I need to kick-start my exercise program.

I was on a TV show the other day where panelists were asked how the nation night come together after a vicious presidential campaign that took hold of our divisions, ripped them wide open and poured in plenty of salt. We couldn't come up with much of anything. Roughly half of the country will be celebrating the fact its chosen candidate crawled from the smoldering rubble with a few more votes than the other. The other half will struggle to understand how this unacceptable, unthinkable outcome occurred.

Then, everybody will put politics behind them, lock arms and march ahead to collaborate on solving the pressing problems of our time. And by that, I mean the exact opposite of that. What part of 'take the country back” do you not understand?

I mumbled something on TV about faint hopes some responsible leaders would step forward to push for bipartisan cooperation and national healing, even if it threatened their political careers. But who in the world would these leaders be, anyway?

Will they come from the ranks of Republicans who cared more about their careers, comfort and caucuses than any dictates of decency or duty to stand against a clearly unfit, unhinged candidate for president, a guy who made a mockery of their so-called principles?

Or will they come from top Democrats who stuck a big old thumb on the primary scales to dispatch an aspirational candidate inspiring a new generation, just so they could nominate an uninspiring, equivocating brand teetering just one stunning disclosure away from tossing the presidency to Mr. Unhinged?

False equivalence! Save it. I've made it plenty clear in multiple columns I think the GOP has served us a preposterous pick who has no business in the White House. But rarely have our two great parties made a better case for a third way. Then, of course, our third way candidates can't find Aleppo with both hands.

Forget about leaders. Our only way forward now is for the rest of us to realize a whole bunch of Americans in both trenches are far better, more thoughtful people than our politics would have us believe. We have far more in common than cynical candidates and campaigns would have us believe. Consultants and media make a living playing up our divisions and stoking conflict. We have to break the cycle.

I'd love to tell you exactly how it's done, but I can't. It's a daunting project. I'll have to give it some deep thought on the treadmill.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com