Opinion

'Unrealistic expectations' plague elected leaders

Saturday, February 10, 2018

For some reason, on the way to work this morning, I was thinking about the concept of "unrealistic expectations."

For me, the term is self-explanatory.

Though there are obvious exceptions, when a 10-year-old boy's life plan is to play professional sports, more often than not, that is an "unrealistic expectation."

We use terms like day dreaming or reaching for the stars, but in more clinical terms it's simply "unrealistic expectations".

Don't misunderstand. Having high expectations and day dreaming on your future is purely normal. In one way or another, I suspect we are all guilty.

But increasingly, as we watch the decay of the political landscape in this country, far too many people have "unrealistic expectations," based on their own partisan views of our future.

It's unrealistic to think we will ever reach some universal agreement on immigration, for example. It's equally unrealistic to expect racial division to be solved overnight.

And yet lawmakers continue to push forward in the assumption that if you talk long enough and loud enough, you will convince others to adopt your point of view.

That is the basic definition of "unrealistic expectations."

Like you, I hold specific and heartfelt views on various topics and no amount of debate or discussion will nudge my opinion in a different direction. To expect otherwise is unrealistic and futile.

At the same time, there are others with widely different viewpoints who, like me, would not waver from their predisposed positions.

Yet we labor daily trying to convince others that their approach is wrong and ours is right. And with that daily effort, we too trod in the unrealistic territory.

I've been accused -- and rightfully so -- of having a cynical approach to the social and political unrest in this country.

I try to be a glass half-full person, but in our changing world, I am seeing more half-empty glasses. My long-held belief that there is a solution for every problem is being tested these days.

What we term gridlock is really nothing more than "unrealistic expectations" from elected leaders who hold to the belief that given time, others will see the error of their ways and come around to "our" way of thinking.

My simple solution for our current impasse is to find one issue -- just one -- on which we can all agree and use that as a starting point for bigger and better agreements.

But finding that one universal issue of agreement is more allusive today than ever.