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Years ago, we were talking politics at dinner with another couple we regularly get together with. All four of us come from different perspectives but agreed that we could probably come up with better solutions than our respective political parties were manifesting at the time.
We jokingly decided to rename our group text chat “The Rational Third Party,” and it’s stayed that way ever since. I hadn’t thought much about it until recently, when it’s felt like daily, if not hourly, that big things happening both locally and nationally just don’t make sense.
A mass shooting with teen victims in downtown Indianapolis following our city’s annual, family-friendly Fourth of July celebration.
The passage of a budget bill that adds $3 trillion to our national debt over the next decade but cuts services to the neediest among us.
Local leaders who seem more interested in protecting sexual abusers on the payroll than seeking justice for survivors.
Escalating rhetoric around immigration, including a migrant detention center in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The word rational means “based on or in accordance with reason or logic.”
These things do not present as rational. But there’s something worse than all the illogical activity: the apathy.
It feels like we’ve all gone numb, like we’re stuck in a holding pattern waiting for the other shoe to drop or hoping for something to distract us. (Thank you to the Indiana Pacers for providing that distraction for almost the entire month of June.)
It conversely feels like the people in power are just waiting things out, taking advantage of the breakneck pace because they know some new terrible thing will probably happen in the next 15 minutes, erasing our collective memories and resetting the well-it-could-be-worse narrative.
All of which to say that when Elon Musk, who spent $250 million helping get President Trump elected only to discover they are not as ideologically aligned as he once believed, said he was forming a new political party, my first thought was to welcome him to the group chat.
I have no idea if he will be successful, but it’s clear that what’s going on right now isn’t working. We’re angry and cynical. We’re lonely. Our trust in government, political parties, education and other institutions continues to plummet.
Plenty of groups have tried to find middle ground or a third way, but those debates often languish on the sidelines because it’s hard to break through the noise. Maybe this is a chance to spark a new conversation about things we might be able to agree on instead of staying stuck in our trenches.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about either party, really. It’s about long-term planning. It’s hard to imagine the future, but we have to, if only because our current trajectory is unsustainable.
Thankfully, our Founding Fathers were smart about this stuff, and there will come a day, a few short years from now, when today’s elected officials will become yesterday’s news. They will fade away, and new leaders will take their place.
I’m not rushing off to join Musk’s new political party, but I’m going to cling tightly to the notion that there are other people out there who just want things to work properly so America—that big, beautiful dream of freedom and opportunity—can thrive again.•
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Chartier is a lifelong Indianapolis resident and owner of Mass Ave Public Relations. Send comments to [email protected].
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