With nine days left before Christmas, I find myself wishing for a few things. Not that any of those wishes will be granted, but wouldn’t it be nice? I know I’d love to see these things under the tree Christmas morning.

🥴 The return of sanity.

I would love logging on to my email accounts or my Facebook account without seeing evidence that friends and acquaintances have bought in to a cult-like group of people who cannot accept reality and who define Americanism and patriotism as agreement with them. Worse, they see masks as a political statement rather than an infection-control device (no, they’re not a device to control you, either; they’re to minimize the risk of you spreading your germs and keep others’ germs from you).

The election is over, and no one of authority has found evidence of widespread fraud; if there were, it would defy all logic that the fraud be only in states the president didn’t win. Judges, many of them appointed by the president in question, rejected nearly all claims brought before them, primarily because conspiracy theories, random human errors and partisan statements are not evidence of fraud, especially when it comes to disenfranchising millions of voters. No, someone looking at you funny isn’t evidence either, except maybe of you being overly sensitive.

More than 81 million Americans voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, while more than 74 million voted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Two-thirds of voting-eligible Americans (66.2 percent) voted this year; the next-largest percentage (65.7 percent) was also in a pandemic year, 1918. It was a record number of ballots cast in an extraordinary year (government response to covid-19 most certainly had an effect), and I pray that each vote was cast with the intent that it was the best thing for the United States, though I can’t discount that some votes were cast out of spite and the belief that the other side is evil (what could possibly go wrong with that line of thinking?).

Regardless of how one voted, we have to remember that we all have to live here. That means we must put aside that which divides us and agree to the same basic reality and rules that allow us to live together peacefully, which means behaving like mature, civil people. Encouraging lawbreaking or flouting of public health recommendations is just nuts (if you’re out in public, is it really such a hardship to follow the same rules everyone else is expected to follow?). Threatening government officials or others when things don’t turn out your way is not and should never be acceptable, whether it’s threats of death or physical harm or of jail (seriously, no elected official should ever condone such ideas). No one should fear stepping outside their houses because of their beliefs or profession. Too many of us are living that fear now, not because of a virus, but because other humans have called for violence.

Things aren’t helped by the fact that we have something similar to the Mandela effect going on. In this instance, though, people who watched the current president while he gave a live address are positive he didn’t say or do what every other person living in reality heard and saw him say or do. When one person has so undermined faith in reality, the rest of us have a long row to hoe because there is no convincing some people that that live feed was real (except the parts they liked; those were completely real). While once that might have been funny, it isn’t anymore.

🗳️ A better way of meting out electoral votes.

I don’t think we should completely do away with the electoral college, but I do believe that all states should use the same allotment method, but not winner-take-all (the decennial census determines how many electoral votes a state gets, and the states determine how their electoral votes are distributed; most use winner-take-all). I’d recommend a more proportional allotment, either by congressional district or by assigning electors based on the percentage of votes received statewide. The two at-large votes (representing senators) would go to whichever candidate won the state. Only two states, Maine and Nebraska, use such a system now.

Why would we consider this? Because, as Pew Research found, the electoral college “consistently produces more lopsided results than the popular vote.” That makes close wins in the popular vote (or losses) look more like landslides. For example, Pew noted, Biden won 51.3 percent of the popular vote, but his electoral college count of 306 is 56.9 percent of the possible 538 votes due to what Pew calls the electoral vote inflation factor.

“Looking back at every presidential election since 1828 (when they began to resemble today’s system), the winner’s electoral vote share has, on average, been 1.36 times his popular vote share,” Pew wrote. While proportional allotment in each state wouldn’t necessarily exactly match actual percentages in those states, over the nation, it would more closely resemble the actual vote. Then maybe we wouldn’t see something like in 1980, when Ronald Reagan won 51 percent of the popular vote, but 91 percent of the electoral college total.

It would also maybe make those who crow about their wins temper their enthusiasm when they realize that other people actually exist and voted for someone else. Those maps with all that red, much of it representing land? They should really be shades of purple because there are no states where only Democrats or only Republicans get votes. Your neighbor’s vote should count just as much as yours regardless of who earned his vote.

Oh, did you forget that other people exist? Tsk, tsk …

⛪️ Separation of church and state.

Yeah, I know, pipe dream, but we’ve gotten way out of control when people on one side can’t even imagine that Christians on the other side (news flash: there’s no single party for Christians) prayed for their guy to win. That one side has spent so much time painting the other side as godless Communists who, among all their other sins, probably kick puppies too, that it can’t conceive of anything different.

Churches can’t really remain completely apolitical. However, when a church lobbies for a specific party or candidate, that’s where we get into dicey legal territory. While nonpartisan political speech (voter registration, outlining issues, etc.) is perfectly fine, excessive lobbying or support for specific candidates or parties is not. Under the Johnson Amendment, churches (as well as other entities categorized as 501(c)(3) organizations) that do such things are in danger of losing their tax-exempt status. While some groups have tried to repeal it in recent years, other believe as I do that it should remain in place and be enforced. Just like in a neighborhood, not everyone who goes to a church is necessarily going to have the same beliefs, and frankly, politics should stay outside the church door.

There are many different flavors of Christians, as well as many other religions and people who practice no religion at all. My Church of Christ upbringing doesn’t make me better or worse than someone with a Catholic or Baptist upbringing, nor do my politics, such that they are. But I won’t apologize for insisting that even churches/Christians must follow the law (pretty sure Jesus said something about that). So yeah, stop pushing government entities to mandate that only your own beliefs are OK to share, as that comes dangerously close to violation of the Establishment Clause by advocating one religion or denomination over others. If government allows religious displays on public land (such as a capitol lawn), all religions as well as atheists should also be able to do the same; a Festivus pole should have the same right to be displayed as a Nativity scene, just as a passage from the Koran should be allowed if the Ten Commandments are.

With private land, anything goes as long as the property owner allows it. On public land … well, we’re the property owners, so …

Watch it … I’m getting awfully close to telling those kids to get off my lawn.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

There is one more thing that I would love to see this year: that we all calm the heck down about “Happy holidays.” Let me say it one more time for the people in the back who refuse to listen: There is NO War on Christmas!!!! Any time I see a post that includes praise for Donald Trump making it OK to say Merry Christmas again, I lose some respect for the person who posted it since there wasn’t anything keeping them from saying it before he was elected. The War on Christmas is complete bunk orchestrated to gin up rage (and ratings). Do NOT make me break out the video evidence that the Obamas said Merry Christmas many, many times in and out of office (or, for that matter, that they’re Christian rather than Muslim).

Joe Biden’s election doesn’t mean you can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore … partly because it was never forbidden before, except by the Puritans (they weren’t fans of merriment and outlawed the celebration of Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1659-1681). They might have been the original party poopers.

When someone says “Happy holidays,” it usually means that that person is being considerate of someone whose beliefs they don’t know, especially considering the abundance of religious and other holidays at this time of the year. Those of us who use that salutation will also use more specific greetings when speaking to someone whose beliefs we do know. We’re being polite and considerate of the feelings and beliefs of others, like our mamas taught us to be, not politically correct.

Responding by spitefully barking out your preferred greeting or otherwise expressing your displeasure is hardly in the spirit of the season, is it? Just smile, deliver the greeting back, and save your venom.

Do you really want to force a Jewish or Muslim store clerk to wish everyone “Merry Christmas” because a generic greeting offends you? Would you want to be forced to wish them a good Eid al-Fitr or Hanukkah?

Do you really expect everyone to know exactly what holidays you celebrate, or do you understand that that’s just not feasible, and it’s better to be safe than sorry and go with a generic greeting to be considerate?

It’s really not that hard to be considerate and kind. At least it’s not supposed to be.