2 weeks Ago
If you woke up delighted to have an extra hour today, the feeling may wear off about 5:26 p.m. Which is when the bloody sun sets this afternoon.
Daylight saving time ended this morning, and the country set its clocks back an hour to “standard time" — a psychotic tradition that dates back, on and off, more than a century. A growing number of people say it’s time to end this madness, which critics argue disrupts sleep patterns, strains our mental health and even causes an increase in traffic accidents. Probably because, during standard time, much of afternoon rush hour takes place in the dark.
Many folks work literally all day. “I know we’ve struggled through daylight saving time since I was a kid,” says Mount Pleasant state Rep. Joe Bustos.
“People didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it.” Bustos, chairman of Charleston County’s legislative delegation, co-sponsored a 2023 bill that would’ve made daylight saving time the standard for South Carolina in perpetuity. No more springing forward or falling back, no more full-dark-thirty rush hours.
Well, at least not in the afternoon. That proposal went nowhere, despite some powerful advocates at the Statehouse. Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler hates the time change almost as much as he dislikes Charleston.
Now, Gov. Henry McMaster signed legislation that would’ve made daylight saving the state’s time back in 2020 ..
. but the catch was Washington had to approve (the legislation Bustos championed would’ve done it regardless). Since those Washington types can’t agree on the color of the sky — much less whether women have bodily autonomy — we’re stuck with this schedule.
But, make no mistake, no one likes the current arrangement very much. Almost every state and territory in this country has flirted with adopting standard or daylight saving time year-round in the past couple of decades. That is widespread unrest.
Literally. And for what? All this time dilation and clock manipulation dates back to 1918. It was the first of several ideas we stole from Germany (while we were at war with it, no less).
“It was originally designed as a way to save energy,” Bustos says. “But I think we’re beyond that now.” The first iteration of daylight saving time was so popular that it lasted all of a year.
When the war ended, it was gone. A generation later, the country tried it again during World War II. After the war, however, the states adopted and dropped time changes so frequently and haphazardly that, in 1966, Congress set a uniform time.
Somehow, Arizona and Hawaii managed to get out of it. Trouble is, as we get closer to winter solstice, the days are going to grow shorter no matter what time our clocks tell us it is. Then they start to get longer, topping out around the summer solstice.
In anticipation of these expanding and contracting days, our collective geniuses chose to switch times on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. Which means we are turning our clocks back just before voters decide whether to set the country back by a century. A common joke these days.
Speaking of, this will be a particularly difficult week for some, and depending on who you ask, sleep-deprived folks are likely to be fighting the election’s outcome until January. With all the rancor and partisanship we endure these days, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to find an issue that would actually unite people? This daylight saving time could be it, because there's little partisan divide here. “People just do not like this disruption twice a year,” Bustos says.
“If I get the chance, I’ll reintroduce the legislation.” That is a great idea, and eventually you have to figure the momentum will even carry over to Congress. You know, assuming we have a country.
But as history (and social media) shows us, nothing is perfect, and someone will always complain. In late 1973, facing a full-on energy crisis, President Richard Nixon put the country on daylight saving time full-time. The idea had nearly 80% support, according to the polls.
Until, that is, we actually switched to daylight saving time in January 1974. After a few months of morning rush hours when sunrise didn't come until nearly 8:30, support for daylight saving dropped by more than half. By the year’s end, full-time daylight saving and Nixon were gone .
.. but not for the same reason.
All that suggests this could bring the country together — either in support or opposition, or just to have something new to gripe about. Point is, as usual, vote Tuesday — the people in Washington can affect your life. And enjoy waiting an extra hour for football today.
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