It’s Election Day in America, but it feels more like America is ramping up to watch a heavyweight fight with words in place of punches. Especially for Millennials and Gen Z, this is no ordinary election and while it may be exciting, there are aspects of this election cycle that defy what it means to be a true patriotic American.
We know our country was built on sharp division, but the violence that was part of establishing America was relative to the times. The verbal violence and the threats of physical violence over the outcome of a modern-day election are unique and unsettling in America in 2024.
In America, we have lost our sense of the freedom to vote for the candidate of our choice. It is not by accident that curtains or dividers exist at polling places. Who you vote for has long been seen as a private act. Of course, people have always been free to boast about who they voted for, but, today, who you vote for is seen as an identification badge that every American should show to everyone.
Politics has always been competitive, but since Barack Obama became a presidential candidate political competition has evolved into a war of words and threats of violence. This is not the America I grew up in and it’s not the America we should be proud of.
While lying is actually legal in political ads, the lies have ramped up into words that can lead to violence. Vice President Kamala Harris lies about the border, economic statistics, and about the country as she wants us to see it. Former President Donald Trump tells lies that are based in a fantasyland that have led to negative actions, from the Haitian immigrants stealing and eating people’s pets to a proactive strategy that the election is already being stolen - with zero evidence to support either lie or the countless other lies that have been concocted during the campaign. But the point is - both candidates lie as every candidate has done before them.
What is disheartening about this election cycle is the acceptance by many Americans to believe ridiculous lies and to actually defend the lies. Our civilized society, or should I say our “alleged” civilized society has always been based on a common acceptance of the facts - the truth. When each side has a false set of facts they predicate every discussion on we can never find the common ground that a civil society is based upon.
Donald Trump has suggested more than once that he may refuse to leave office if he wins. Like his challenge of the 2020 election results, when Trump tried to change democracy in favor of an autocratic leader. The idea that a president who loses an election refusing to leave office is a gross violation of The Constitution and everything that is admired around the world about America. But if Trump wins and sets up the presidency in such a way that he refuses to leave when his four years are up, there will be ways to physically remove his body from the White House. That could make Jan 6 look like a picnic. But let’s hope that like so many things Trump has said during the campaign that any thoughts of being an autocratic president are just nonsensical ramblings.
The truth is that many Americans are voting for Donald Trump, not because they agree with his nonsensical ramblings, but because they trust his handling of the border and the economy and they see him as a reluctant alternative to VP Kamala Harris. I get that and I have never told anyone not to vote for Trump.
There are also many Americans who are voting for Kamala Harris, not because they really like and trust her, but because she is not Donald Trump. I remember elections where people voted for candidates because of the positives they represented. This election is more about voting for the lesser of two evils and that’s sad.
On this Election Day 2024 - at the end of a campaign season that was littered with lies and comments that were obscene on many levels - I want to take you back to Ronald Reagan’s message on the eve of Election Day 1980. And let’s look back with the hope that one day we can divorce the ugliness and start a new life with a more positive view of ourselves.
Republican Candidate Ronald Reagan on the eve of Election Day 1980:
It is autumn now in Washington, and the residents there say that more than ever during the past few years, Americans are coming to visit their capital some say because economic conditions rule out more expensive vacations elsewhere; some say an election year has heightened interest in the workings of the national government.
Others say something different: in a time when our values, when our place in history is so seriously questioned, they say Americans want their sons and daughters to see what is still for them and for so many other millions in the world a city offering the last best hope of man on earth!
You can see them these Washington visitors looking for the famous as they walk through congressional hallways; see them as they return silent and tightlipped to tour buses that brought them for a walk through rows of white crosses in Arlington Cemetery; you can see them as they look up at a towering statue of Jefferson or out from the top of the Washington Monument; or as they read the words inscribed at the Lincoln Memorial. Let us bind up the nations wounds.
These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is stilla shining city on a hill.
At this very moment, some young American, coming up along the Virginia or Maryland shores of the Potomac is seeing for the first time the lights that glow on the great halls of our government and the monuments to the memory of our great men.
Let us resolve tonight that young Americans will always see those Potomac lights; that they will always find there a city of hope in a country that is free. And let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation that we did keep faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves; that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill.
