Take the bus

 

As election season approaches, I find myself returning to a piece of advice that adjusted how I think about voting - back when I was frustrated that no politician, regardless of party, ever felt like quite the right fit.

The statement was this:

Voters aren’t choosing a life partner. They’re choosing a representative.

You’re not going to share a home with this person. Debate the proper way to load a dishwasher, argue about who’s the better driver or find out whether they butcher “Purple Rain” at karaoke. That’s not the relationship you need.

The advice that followed was this:

Imagine you’re stranded six hours from home. Fortunately, there’s a bus stop nearby, so you wait.
The first bus pulls up. The driver is heading two hours down the road toward home - but not far enough. You pass.

The next bus goes five hours out. Still an hour short of where you need to be. You pass on that one too.

This continues all day. Bus after bus, each falling just short of your destination. By nightfall, you haven’t moved a bit. You’re exactly where you started - still six hours from home.

Here’s what you missed: if you’d taken that first bus, you’d have been two hours closer. From there, another bus. Then another. Each one carrying you a little farther, until eventually, you’d have made it.
Instead, you held out for the perfect bus. And you never went anywhere.

Voting works the same way. You will never find a candidate who checks every box, mirrors every value or champions every cause you hold dear.

The perfect political match doesn’t exist.

But you can find people who share enough of your vision - who can move your city, your state, your country a little closer to where you believe it should be.

Progress doesn’t require perfection; it just requires forward motion.

So take the bus.