Just about all the oxygen in any news space for the last two weeks has been sucked up by the American Presidential election.

That is with good reason. Everything ties back to the person picked to run the biggest economy, biggest armed-forces, biggest diplomatic-force, and most influential culture shaper on the planet. Yes, there is unrest in Central Asia and another spike in the Coronavirus disease, but the President of the United States is uniquely situated to handle both in the same hour.

That is, if they choose to.

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite writers is simple: you don’t fight the fights you can win, you fight the fights that need fighting.

It comes from a movie about an American President (conveniently enough, titled, The American President) as the chief of staff tells a re-election minded president to stop strategizing and start doing what must be done.

I think about that a lot, because politics has become a place where the fights you can win, and the fights that need fighting are getting confused over, and over, and over again.

To step away from global affairs for a minute: this election has been ridiculously divisive. Not just between different parties, but between friends within the same party. Two men I deeply respect, both of whom I’m happy to have worked with, both of whom I’m happy to talk to, descended this week into an absolutely irrelevant fight over which hypothetical candidate would have done better as a presidential candidate and how their differences reflect a classism/ignorance that disgusts the other.

This is not a fight that needs fighting.

Debating what our goals out to be is fair, reviewing your personal biases is worthwhile, but dying on a hill over a hypothetical situation is ridiculous. It’s like saying that, if Asamoah Gyan had made his penalty against Uruguay, Ghana would have won the World Cup and he’d be winding down his career as a Juventus legend right now (rather than suiting up for Legon Cities).

Yes, that’s possible. But we have no way of knowing. And what’s more, it simply isn’t important enough to castigate those who disagree with you.

That’s anathema to our current president. A man who has never held back from a fight he didn’t need to fight.

To him a petty insult on social media is a ten alarm fire. A half-assed attempt at social consciousness is a Category 5 catastrophic disaster. An apparent personal failure is a clear and demonstrable sign that the end times are nigh, so take arms good Christian soldiers, take arms!

He is the king of fighting fights he can win, regardless of whether or not they need to be fought. He promised “so much winning” and to the eyes of many he’s delivered. (Despite the fact that the victories are pyrrhic at best, and–more often–totally invented.)

So, of course, he is fighting another fight that doesn’t need to be fought now.

He has been defeated. The experts who judge elections say so. The officials who tabulate votes say so. Behind closed doors, his friends and family say so.

But he’s fighting anyway. Unfortunately, he’s fighting what doesn’t need to be fought: imagined voter fraud, make-believe master-conspiracies, and totally valid critiques of his awful performance as president. He’s fighting all these so that he can continue fighting pointless fights he can win from the comfort of a presidential motorcade.

In soccer, the game isn’t over until the final whistle. It’s thrilling to see teams hustle, and sweat, and strive to win. The Loons stealing a tie when the result didn’t really matter. (Harry Kane pipping a win for the premier league team I try not to talk about). Heck even Cukaricki getting a questionable winner to deny our friends in Vozdovac. Those are great moments, because playing with pride is a fight that’s worth fighting.

Protecting your ego, diminishing someone else, scoring a point on a hypothetical argument you can never prove: not worth it.

Fight the fights that need fighting boys. And if you’re not sure if it needs to be fought, just ask: would Donald Trump fight this? (If yes, then step back boys, step back.)