Advice for Staying Sane

For starters, avoid these two at all costs

Donald Trump and his cheerleader Elon Musk (credit: Getty Images)

We are here today to commemorate, or perhaps more appropriately, decry, an anniversary. It was 20 years ago when the first social network gained a global reach. MySpace is the granddaddy of social media platforms and the precursor to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. MySpace begat a society of screen-watchers, straining our eyes, arching our necks, and cooking our brains like a fried egg.

It wasn’t long ago that politics was somewhat sane, many news sources were believed to be reliable, and candidates generally spoke the truth. American democracy was not only respected but envied. 

Social media seemed like a good idea in the beginning: being able to click on your computer to keep up with friends, colleagues, your cousin’s kids. Then we got Donald Trump and his toxic spewing on Twitter, and bad actors entered stage right. Suddenly Russia was not-so-secretly trying to influence our presidential election back in 2016. It still is. 

Today, we have the world’s richest person, who happens to own a vast social media network, brazenly backing Trump by peddling conspiracy theories to his 200 million followers and giving away (some say paying) millions to sway voters.  

Twitter, X, or whatever you want to call it has given unchecked power to Elon Musk, who would otherwise be geeking out somewhere in anonymity. Now Musk and his new BFF are plotting how they could help each other during a second Trump term. Hey Elon, don’t be surprised if Trump suddenly “unfriends” you, and soon.

Here’s my first tip to surviving the final two weeks before the election: Save your sanity and stay off social media. Get away from the TV, the computer, the phone. It is not good for anyone’s mental health to doomscroll. Leave the house and enjoy the lovely fall weather. Take a walk or a drive. 

Sure, use your phone to check sports scores, make dinner reservations, or call someone — the device’s original purpose.

Yes, we’re all on the edge of our seats, awaiting our chance to vote. Friends, I am not one to sugarcoat anything, much less the state of the most important election in our lifetimes. The race appears to be incredibly close. Based on my 70-plus years of covering American politics, please allow me to offer some suggestions for getting through the next two weeks without losing our collective minds. 

Do not obsess over the polls. The national horse race polls are meaningless at this point. We know it will come down to the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And the public polls that you see from those swing states are worthless, according to David Plouffe, a Harris senior adviser. He doesn’t even look at them, instead using the campaign’s internal polling, which he believes is more reliable.

Do not react to every flutter you read or hear — good or bad. Social media and the mainstream media amplify chatter for clicks and views. It is designed to get your attention, but that doesn’t mean there is any value or validity to the “news.”

Do consume other things. Read some fiction, go to a movie, listen to music.

Remember that a race this close — and it has been close for months — will not change significantly over the next two weeks. If you see a poll or anything else that suggests a huge swing in either direction, it is likely bunk.

I can’t write a piece this close to the election without (again) talking about Donald Trump’s unhinged and increasingly angry and erratic behavior. But I will keep it short.

In the last three days, he has talked incoherently about topics that have absolutely nothing to do with anything meaningful to voters. He made vulgar comments about golfer Arnold Palmer. He characterized January 6 as “a day of love.” He had a staged photo-op “working” at a McDonald’s in a misguided appeal to working-class voters — interesting coming from a candidate whose FEC filings show he has spent $31,000 at the fast-food chain since January 2023. 

It is doubtful that any of this will motivate fence-sitters to the polls for Trump, and what matters most now is getting people into the voting booth. That doesn’t start and end on November 5. Early voting has already begun in 46 states and Washington, D.C., so the turnout ground game is already underway.

“[Turnout] is a combination of best operation, best data, best resources, best volunteers. But what really gives all of that energy is the candidate closing well,” Plouffe explained on a recent podcast. “That gets more volunteers out. That might get some of those tough-to-get voters to say, ‘She’s taking the fight to them; I like that.’ Sometimes it’s not policy-based; it can be based on performance and energy. And she’s out there campaigning hard, having fun, going into tough [venues] like Fox News,” he continued.

As close as this race is, I still maintain that Harris has more going for her than Trump does. She has raised more money. The Democrats’ ground game is bigger and better organized. Most importantly, Harris is a more energized and likable candidate. 

But none of that will matter unless she gets her vote out.

The best advice I or anyone else can give is, vote! And get as many others as you can to do so too.

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Stay Steady,
Dan