BOTH SIDES?
What is clear already this early Wednesday morning after Election Day is that the "blue wave" we had hoped for did not materialize. I look at the election results map and I am appalled by the number of states that show up red. It sickens me that so many Americans could cast their vote in favor of a man who has proved himself in every possible, public way to be so entirely lacking in the values America pretends to embrace. He shows himself, virtually daily and with no trace of shame, to be cruel, mean-spirited, corrupt, incompetent, racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, nepotistic, and unfit for the office to which he was elected. He is subservient to those who wish us ill and contemptuous of our friends. His neglect and contempt for scientific, factual information makes him responsible for the death of tens of thousands of his fellow citizens. Given another term, he will be blithely responsible for tens of thousands more.
How could this be more plain? More incontrovertible?
I am wearied by the effort to see "both sides" of America's divide. I am tired of tempering my language to accommodate bad faith. I am sickened by those who try to explain stupidity and self-pitying grievance away as though they were somehow defensible or well meant. There is no debate, there is no rational "other side" to reason with. There is only the ruthless exercise of power and its piteous effects on the minds of those who are willingly led by people who wish them nothing but ill. There is only money to buy power and influence, and propaganda to assure its unquestionable authority. Truth is falsehood, falsehood truth. Compassion and concern for the welfare of others are considered weaknesses. Legitimate concern for the very future of our planet home is decried as an obstacle to the growth of our economy.
I sit here holding on to the fragment of trust I have, that Trump will be ousted and Joe Biden will be elected the next president of these Divided States. Given what we see on the board that tallies the election results, however, and the real possibility that Republicans will hold on to the Senate, it is hard to see how this country can be governed even by a man who so publicly embraces reason and fairness, empathy and compassion, and promises to be president for "both sides."
