This blog post is going to be a little different than usual. I’m not going to cover a study or discuss a particular medical topic. Rather, I just want to share some personal thoughts on this political moment.
I am not going to endorse a particular candidate, nor a particular set of policies. Like any other citizen, I have my thoughts and ideas about this stuff, and I will be voting today for my preferred (or, more accurately, my less non-preferred) candidates. But as a doctor, I am meticulously non-partisan. I take care of Democrats and Republicans and anybody else equally, and it’s my job to stay out of the political fray and do my absolute best for each and every person who comes to me. I took an oath when I entered this profession, and that was to serve my patients to my utmost. If a person whose politics were truly loathsome showed up at my office (let’s just imagine Adolf Hitler himself, to make the point clear), I would still do my very best to help them with their medical issues.
Which brings me to my first point for today: we would all do better to be a bit less political. The whole purpose of having politics in a democracy is to create the conditions for individuals, families, and communities to flourish. Tax policy, policing, national security, and a clean environment are all important things, but the end goal of them should be to enable a society in which we aren’t constantly obsessing over political issues, but rather are free to enjoy time with our friends and families; to engage in meaningful work; to make and consume art and literature and music; to play and watch sports; to live out our faith lives; and so forth.
I frequently say that one of the great joys of my job is that I get to have front row seats to whatever is going on in society, privileged as I am to care for a diverse group of human beings, and one of the things that is striking is how seriously (too many) people take politics these days. I have literally seen patients go on anti-anxiety medication in the past few years because they are so upset by the direction of the country. To these folks I say: relax. Politics is very important, and it’s good to care and to be involved, but just remember that there is so much more to life than what the folks in Washington DC or the statehouse in Boston are up to.
This brings me to my second point. I’m not going to argue that this isn’t a very important election, and one in which the stakes for our democracy itself aren’t in fact perhaps on the line. Again, I myself am voting and care a lot about the outcome. So by all means, take this election seriously.
But don’t forget that whatever happens the sun will rise each day, there will still be oxygen to breathe and water to drink, and life will go on. Even the absolute worst case scenarios are likely to not be quite as bad as you think. If tomorrow American democracy were to end and life were to take a truly dark turn here, we’d almost certainly STILL be living in a vastly richer, freer, safer, and better country than our fellow human beings in North Korea, China, Iran, Russia, or countless other countries. In fact, we’d probably still be able to reasonably count ourselves amongst the luckiest human beings to ever inhabit the planet during the long sweep of human history.
Finally, I want to return to a topic that I’ve touched on in a few recent posts: the general health of our nation. While our politicians bicker about health insurance, crime, immigration policy, global warming, abortion, and lots of other issues (all of which are important!), I think that if an alien species with no prior ideas about American politics were to arrive here and analyze our current condition, they would be stunned by how precipitously American health has declined in the past few decades, and baffled by the fact that this isn’t one of the top issues in our national conversation.
This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. When the average American is obese, metabolically unhealthy, and heavily medicated, we are in the throws of a real crisis. Part of solving this crisis will be engaging the political process. Until our government stops subsidizing junk food, allowing the widespread use of pesticides and other toxic substances that are banned in most other countries, taking its health advice from big business interests, eliminating opportunities for physical activity in our schools, and paying for medical care that reacts to disease but not paying for care that can actually prevent that disease, we are going to have trouble pulling out of this nosedive that we are in.
But nobody needs to wait for congress to act in order to make their own health better. No matter who you are or what your life circumstances, you have the power to choose to eat healthier food, get more exercise, prioritize sleep, and “just say no” to a pharmaceutical approach to all of life’s problems. Make a vow that, whoever wins this election, you will take these basic steps to get healthier. If enough Americans were to do that, it would have a bigger positive impact on our society than anything any politician does in the next four years.
Good luck to us all today, and stay safe out there.
