Stress Test

The election could cause stress, or something:

Given it is the height of the political silly season, I recently awoke to find on my health insurance provider’s website the following event: “Election Stress and Your Mental Well-being.” Evidently, among the ostensibly mature adults inhabiting our free republic, a health crisis burgeons: citizens are experiencing cognitive and emotional difficulty dealing with a common civic occurrence and its outcome. In fact, “coping” with voting induces such angst, one may be compelled to retreat to the succor of cyberspace counseling to learn how to talk to family and friends about the election; and to otherwise “learn strategies to help manage stress and anxiety that elections can bring.” My first response was “Really?” In my case, the healthcare provider was over a decade late for my peak election stress—and even as a candidate, I never needed help to deal with it. You win; you lose; real life goes on. But then empathy struck me. We live in a period of time where segments of both sides of the political spectrum are convinced this election will determine the fate of “our democracy” and “free republic.” And both sides’ operatives and candidates will spend over a billion dollars offering “fear itself” to drive their supporters to the polls and/or drop boxes.

We have nothing to fear except the other side winning...