We’re roughly one month into the four-year final term of President Donald Trump. The
decisive election that enabled his presidency was almost four months ago.

Many within MAGA world are still celebrating. Those on the opposite end of the political
spectrum are still working through various stages of grief and/or “resistance”.
Most Americans who don’t live in a 24/7 political bubble are just trying to deal with their
everyday lives, and quite frankly, are over the political answers or excuses for real problems
that they don’t necessarily expect the government to solve. They also pray that the government
doesn’t make these issues worse.

Those in the bubble, whether MAGA red or resistance blue, seem to be losing the plot. Those
who aren’t in the bubble are noticing, and are increasingly annoyed with both groups.

The point of having representatives at various levels of government is so that they can handle
most of the day to day things that governments do, and then we decide every two, four, or six
years whether they and/or their party did their job good enough to deserve another term.
During that time in between elections we should remain informed, but the priority for us
should be to get on with our lives and do things we enjoy.

Instead, too many of us confuse our cable news, our podcasts, and other forms of opinion
based entertainment as news. Too many then believe that every opinion is valid and actionable,
worth even more than those who have a front row seat and full information at their disposal to
weigh decisions and consequences of action and inaction. This thinking is part of the bubble
trap.

Last week I was having dinner at a regular spot, with communal seating. I was having a
discussion with one other patron who I’ve met at the same place a couple of other times, as she
too is a regular. She’s a fine person with an interesting personal history and a good
conversationalist. At one point she wanted to know if I was going to the protest tomorrow –
President’s Day.

“Protest? What are we protesting?”

I got an earful, mostly about non-specific things or about what new appointees might be doing.
She could be right, but I’d prefer to let folks actually do things rather than give up a day with
nice weather to protest hypotheticals. That said, it’s her right to do with her time what she
pleases. When it was her time to go, I wished her well and told her to enjoy herself, sincerely.

Shortly thereafter her seat and a few others were filled with Navy aviators, fresh off a tour that
involved missions in a combat theater. After some welcoming greetings and small talk, we
found out that we had a mutual friend in common. This made one of them decide to become
very serious - and very frank - about his job. Real talk. He needed to get a few things out, and I
was doing my best to let him. It was clear he needed to decompress.

A lady that had been sitting on the other side of me had apparently overheard enough, and she
saw it differently. What he needed, as she saw it, was fifteen minutes of straight lecture about
how horrible the military had been run under the prior administration, but he didn’t need to
worry anymore because everything was going to be beautiful and perfect now.

It was inappropriate, uncalled for, and out of place for what he needed to hear. And nothing he
or I said could stop it. She didn’t understand a single one of his actual concerns. The only tool
she carried was a hammer, and he was a trapped nail.

It’s great to believe that things are about to change for the better. It’s absolutely unacceptable
to believe that can be extrapolated to what those who put themselves on the front line, in
actual combat danger, have to deal with on a daily basis that transcends politics.

These aren’t exactly equal and opposite anecdotes, but they occurred within the span of one
meal and additional beverage after. Both people were so focused on the one problem as they
see it that every other thing they encountered was measured by it or a reaction to it.

We’re all free to live in the bubbles of our choosing. How we act and react to those who choose
to live normally until the next election will determine a lot about which direction swing voters
move.

For now, we’ve made our choices known at the ballot box. Some of us won, some of us didn’t,
and quite a few didn’t particularly care for either team.

Regardless, it’s over. It’s done. Thankfully, we don’t have to do this again until late next year
for midterms, and until 2028 for the Presidency.

We can lament who won, and make resistance our focus. Conversely, we can do victory dances
and rub that in everyone’s face despite the folks we elected have barely begun their work –
with results still to be determined.

Or, better yet, we can live our best lives while the politicians do what they were elected to do.
We’ll have plenty of time to applaud or complain well before any more votes are cast.