All the things we should leave behind in 2020
I finally have found a use for Al Gore’s lockbox. Remember that special container where your Social Security was supposed to have been put away for safekeeping 20 years ago? Gore’s lockbox never got used, so rather than let it gather more dust, it is time to retrofit it for a new use.
I propose filling it with things to leave behind with 2020. Literal 2020 hindsight. Here are 10 things to start:
● Karens. When you’ve seen one out-of-control woman going off in the canned tomato aisle, you’ve seen them all. It became boring by May, and it long ago became unfair to Good Karens. Enough.
● Presidential tweets spouting falsehoods or conspiracy theories, or attacking a person’s appearance, height, perspiration, ethnicity, and any other personal slight that erupted from Oval Office temper tantrums. The stuff Mama told you was rude and wrong and beneath you when you were 5.
Bans, conspiracy theories, lies
● Claims that evil doers are trying to “ban” Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or the 4th of July, or any other holiday, including Festivus. These claims were stupid when they first appeared years ago, and they got even stupider in 2020.
● Conspiracy theories of any dimension, subject or ideology. Make facts and reality great again.
● The mask debate. Masks help. Science has proved it. Are they a panacea? Of course not. If you don’t wear one, it’s on you.
● The term “fake news.” There never was such a thing. News, by definition, is truth-based accounts of events and reality. As opposed to propaganda, opinion, PR, fantasy, conspiracy, lies.
● The position “political strategist” as a TV talking head. Strategizing for what? The next appearance on Fox News, MSNBC or CNN? A good many of folks who appear above this chyron emigrated from losing campaigns or failed candidacies themselves, and for two straight presidential elections, they’ve been as wrong as they have been right, so what exactly are they enlightening us about? Bring back the reporters. At least they will have something new to say when the lights go on.
‘Turning the corner’ on 2020
● The phrase “turning the corner.” We were told that was happening so many times, and it didn’t, that no wonder it feels like we walked in circles throughout 2020.
● The call for “normalcy” and “new normal.” What does normal even mean anymore?
● Finally, ascribing all the strange things that have happened to “it’s 2020.” The calendar is about to turn. Pack that phrase in the lockbox and never speak it again.
Chuck Raasch is a former national correspondent for USA TODAY and GNS, a former Washington correspondent for the St. Louis Post-dispatch and the author of “Imperfect Union: A Father’s Search for his Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg.” Follow him on Twitter: @craasch