Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

Americans love a quick fix—an easy answer, immediate satisfaction. We crave comfort. Pharmaceutical ads on TV may not mention what it cures, but if it cures fast, we love it. 

Have you been trapped in an early morning airport coffee line behind “complicated order person?” I have. Their order has more ingredients and steps than Grandma’s top secret chili recipe. Waiting, I sigh as loudly as I can and shrug my shoulders. Then I roll my eyes dramatically like every 13-year-old girl in English class. I’m praying the barista will take pity on my plight. She doesn’t. No quick fix for me.

Right now, we’re faced with politicians calling for a scary quick fix. Charlie Kirk was murdered. No one should celebrate any murder. It’s cruel and ugly. But it seems teachers and late-night comics are held to a higher standard than our political leaders.

The quick fix solution is to blame “radical left lunatics,” and to try and stifle free speech even though the alleged murderer acted alone. That’s a prescription for division, not healing. 

People writing on social media should follow Mom’s rules: “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.” But canceling freedom of speech is dangerous. George Washington said, “If freedom of speech may be taken away, the dumb and silent may be led like sheep to slaughter.”

The love of quick fixes for difficult problems is drowning our politics, and it explodes whenever there’s a major news event, and during our political campaigns. The media shout shows fuel division, and politicians play for the cameras and headlines.

I hear politicians saying, “We need to turn the temperature down.” That’s true. But in the same interview he/she twists themselves in knots defending outrageous statements from members of their own party. The temperature rises.

What can be done to cool the temperature?

• The reason politicians use negative campaigning is because it works. It will stop if voters reject it.
• Everyone needs to stop calling people they disagree with, “Nazis, liberal scum, fascists, vermin, communists, lunatics, communists,” or any other vile name. We also should condemn the name calling whenever we hear it. Despite the “sticks and stones” poem, words do hurt and divide.   
• Political campaigns are too long. We should elect our leaders in six months or less. Long campaigns force candidates to fill air space. I’ve done a lot of political door knocking and found people startled there’s an election in three days. I know the political class and media want long campaigns. The public doesn’t. A general election campaign in the United Kingdom lasts 25 days.
• Campaigns are too expensive. To win an Iowa contested Senate race, candidates must raise $100,000 minimum. That means daily call time begging for money and endless fund-raising events. The money eliminates great candidates. A candidate who pledges not to accept special interest money tends to lose.
• We have laws to protect consumers from false advertising. But during political campaigns some candidates lie without penalty. Often the candidate will hide behind a third party to do the last-minute, extreme campaigning. Free speech is sacred in America, but fraud is illegal in business. It should be in campaigns too.
• Most Americans live in the political middle. Most candidates are forced to the Right or Left. Compromise isn’t a weak word. Bipartisan laws are the ones that survive beyond elections.
• Politicians shouldn’t get to choose their voters. Gerrymandering is wrong and it cheats voters, and it discourages working together.

It’s possible to cool the temperature if we’re willing to have conversations if we’re willing to disagree agreeably. It’s hard to hate someone while talking over coffee.