GOP governor says state is prepared to sue a Harris administration over trans athletes in women's sports

Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024 in New York City. When election season rolls around I always run into a lot of people who are having a pretty bad time. It’s the drumbeat of dire news and last-minute plot twists and scandals. It’s the absurdly close polls. It’s the feeling that we — especially those of us who like me live in California — are approximately powerless while a decision of enormous importance gets made. There’s nothing to do but wait and see what happens — not that that stops me from frequently refreshing all the models and squinting at the internals of all the polls. So I wanted to talk about how to keep perspective on presidential elections without pretending they don’t matter or letting them become the sole verdict on whether our world is headed in the right direction. It does matter a great deal who wins on Tuesday, obviously. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have very different views on Ukraine, on Gaza, on tariffs, on legal immigration, on Latin American coup attempts, on abortion, on whether you should get election boards to discard the results of legitimate elections, and on much more. I’m not here to argue that you should be zen about the election because it doesn’t matter — it matters enormously. But I do think that when you step back and take some perspective, it’s clear that many of the things that matter the most for our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the lives of everyone on Earth, don’t get decided in elections. And how those things go are much easier to affect than elections are. Looking back at what actually mattered Often the most important gears that turned to affect people’s lives — for better or for worse — did that without a single mention on a debate stage or a campaign platform. Antibiotics. Vaccination. Mass electrification. Contraception. The internet. The nuclear bomb. Factory farming. Most of the ways that we are fortunate to live in the 2020s instead of the 1920s — and most of the ways that the 2020s are far more horrifying than the 1920s — happened despite the lousy presidents and without much aid from the good ones. Even when an issue is hotly contested, the key thing that ends up driving change is often only tangentially related to the part everyone is arguing about. We’re on a much better footing in the fight against climate change because solar is so cheap — most of the debates over everything else end up being a rounding error compared to that. One of my colleague Dylan Matthews’s most famous contrarian Future Perfect-flavored takes was that George W. Bush was actually, if you do the math, an awesome president because of PEPFAR, his AIDS program that saved at least a million lives in Africa at a time when no one was giving AIDS the prioritization it deserved. Sure, he also started a couple of unnecessary wars in the Middle East and the pointless expansion of the surveillance state in the name of liberty. Sure, his domestic policy agenda was mostly a flop or got forgotten about in the aftermath of 9/11. But still, he saved a lot of children. How much to consider this a defense of George W. Bush is mostly a philosophical question, and frankly I don’t care — I’m not the judge of his soul. But I do think that it’s a very important point if you are thinking about how to do good in the world. Things that no one is paying attention to, neglected programs that a dedicated visionary can make happen — these are often where the enormous effects on the world are. Remember what matters Elections matter. But they are very far from being the only thing that matters. And it’s very hard among the noise and chaos and fury of any given moment to guess which of the many issues contested in an election are the ones that will really matter. (Pandemic prevention, just to take one example, was not much of an issue in 2016, just a few years before Covid hit.)  So if you find yourself feeling paralyzed and helpless about elections, refreshing news sites instead of doing real substantive work toward a better world, my advice — which I have had only mixed success at taking for myself — is to stay oriented to all of the other things that matter just as much and that are much, much easier to change.  Instead of letting every twist and swing of the polls in Wisconsin control your mood, work on something that really matters and that none of our politicians are bothering to solve. This is an important decision you don’t have much control over. But the direction of our country and our world is an important decision you do have an enormous amount of control over.  There are a great many people alive today because of the individual efforts of dedicated people who decided to solve some problem they could no longer bear. There are a great many important scientific projects that need volunteers. There are horrible evils to work on ending, and horrible dilemmas that will become less of a dilemma as advancing technology and human creativity give all of us better options.  So next time you want to hit “refresh” on the polls, think about if you’ll find it more empowering — and the world will find it more useful — for you to pick something else that also really matters, and do that instead.

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Children as young as 5 have shown to already have a basic understanding of presidents and elections. In the midst of a heated presidential election, political coverage and commentary can feel unavoidable. Kids are not immune — they might be picking up information about the race from the adults in their lives, at recess, or on social media. As much as parents may think their children are oblivious, research shows kids, including very young ones, are paying attention. One study found that nearly all of the surveyed kids between the ages of 5 and 11 could name the candidates running for president in 2016.  “Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade can name candidates when they see their pictures,” says Erin Pahlke, an associate professor of psychology at Whitman College and a co-author of the study, “and they have a sense of what the candidates believe.” You don’t have to have an in-depth discussion with your child every time they encounter a political topic. When it comes to political conversations with kids, experts say you should answer their questions about the civic process and quell any fears they may have — but avoid telling them how to think. When kids are young, teach them about civic engagement Since children as young as 5 are shown to already have a basic understanding of presidents and elections, you can use this early exposure to guide and inform their knowledge. Kids of all ages can learn about civic engagement through activities like mock elections in school or accompanying their parents to the polls on Election Day, says clinical psychologist Melissa Goldberg Mintz, author of Has Your Child Been Traumatized? How to Know and What to do to Promote Healing and Recovery.  You can use this experience to teach kids how elections work. Children as young as 5 can grasp that voters are choosing between two major candidates from opposite parties and for laws that affect where they live, Pahlke says. If an elementary school-aged child has particular interests — maybe they love trains and buses — you could explain how proposed legislation would impact transportation in your city or town, Goldberg Mintz says. But don’t get too in the weeds or too prescriptive. “Something we would not want to do,” she says, “is talk about ‘With global climate change and increasing natural disasters, our city is doomed if we don’t have these protective flood measures.’” Allow kids to lead the dialogue Although children are exposed to more political information than their parents realize, their understanding or the conclusions they draw is sometimes incorrect, Pahlke says. Parents have a responsibility to clear up these misunderstandings, she continues, so ask your kids what they know about certain topics. Watching or reading the news together can be an effective way to start a conversation, says Nicole Caporino, an associate professor of psychology at American University. If any stories trigger fear or confusion, you can discuss the likelihood that their fears will materialize, point out hopeful news stories, and assure them the family will cope with any potential challenges together, Caporino says. Caporino’s research has suggested that most children and adolescents were worried about political issues. Don’t downplay their concerns, Goldberg Mintz says. Do your best to give them an honest answer, but try not to give into fear or negativity, even if you are feeling scared. You might say, “I hear that you’re worried about that, and I have some concerns too. But we’ll figure out ways to get through it if that happens.”  Parents should open the door to these conversations, because chances are children might already be thinking about these topics, Pahlke says. However, you shouldn’t offer up too many details if your child isn’t interested. For example, if you ask your elementary-aged kid, “The presidential election is coming up. Have you heard anything?” and they don’t have a strong opinion or say they haven’t talked about it with their friends, you can leave it at that.  “We don’t ever want to volunteer bloody details or gory information that kids don’t already know about,” Goldberg Mintz says. “We want to be a trustworthy source for them. And if we don’t know the answer, we want to show them how to get to a trustworthy source.” Teens who are closer to voting age can handle discussions about specific policies, Pahlke says, and parents can explain various perspectives and potential outcomes. Parents can also talk with their teens about the importance of voting, Goldberg Mintz says. Encourage them to fact-check what they see on social media Teens are increasingly turning to social media to stay informed, with one 2022 survey finding that half of Gen Z adolescents source their news from online platforms. If your kid asks you a question about something they’ve seen on social media (or sounds as if it originated there), use this as an opportunity to fact-check those claims with them. Check sources like AP Fact Check, Politifact, and Snopes and show them where they can find trusted reporting. To determine a source’s credibility, the News Literacy Project recommends quickly researching the source of your news, determining if the organization has ethical standards, and assessing the quality of the outlet’s other coverage.  “We don’t ever want to volunteer bloody details or gory information that kids don’t already know about.” If your teen doesn’t come to you directly with what they’ve been watching online, you might need to gently broach the conversation. In the case of viral disinformation campaigns, you can ask your child, “Did you see people talking about this on social media?” This way you can glean information about what your kid is seeing online and correct any inaccuracies. Let them come to their own conclusions High schoolers will have more nuanced understandings about certain current events and policies and it’s appropriate to discuss these topics with them, Pahlke says. But rather than paint various candidates or points of view as “good” or “bad,” help them consider different perspectives. Explain why people with various experiences would have different opinions on a topic. It’s fine if they align with a particular candidate or policy, but they should also be able to see where the other side is coming from. Perspective-taking can help them in other relationships, too, Pahlke says. Teens may also have a clear understanding of their personal values and can reflect on how certain candidates or policies reflect these values and goals, Goldberg Mintz says. You can show your teen where to find credible information from trusted news sources on specific candidates and policies and let them make up their minds. “Rather than trying to get in the weeds about ‘This is the candidate that our family can support, and it’s because XYZ’ is trying to define a kid’s beliefs for them,” Goldberg Mintz says. “We let our kids come to their own decisions.”

My name is Stitches and I approve this farewell message. The long and winding road. … Stick a fork in us. We’re done. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

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