Mailer upon mailer upon mailer appeared daily in our mailbox. Fortunately, the distance between the box and the recycling bin is short.
Some of what we received was vile. Much was lies. Every candidate had a loving spouse and two and a half children who posed with the candidate in a charming family portrait, teeth agleam. Clearly someone from such a nice looking family had the ability to govern perfectly. Especially when we were assured they wanted only the best for us. And I appreciated that they didn’t bore me with the source of their campaign contributions.
I found it interesting all the election trash could be delivered in a timely fashion but voting by mail ballots are threatened with delays.
Not one of the mailers, not one of candidate interviews in the media, not any social media post I heard about, questioned the validity of the election process. We had more mail-in voting than ever before. Not one candidate expressed the slightest reservation about it.
On election night we had winners. And we had more losers than winners. Some of the losers had been in office for years.
Not one person who lost refused to accept the result. There was some anger, some tears, but no rejection of the result.
This has been the situation in primary elections throughout the country.
This has been the situation, with very few exceptions, in primary and final elections throughout the history of our country.
When elections have been close, recounts have been demanded or mandated by law, lawyers have argued, and emotions have been raw. But what has always happened when a razor thin election is finally decided one way or the other?
When Richard Nixon lost to Jack Kennedy, he accepted the result for the good of the country.
When Al Gore lost to George W. Bush, he did not let what he felt was an unfair decision rip the country apart.
In 2018 three Florida state races were close enough for recounts. Two were won by Republicans and one by a Democrat. In none of them did the loser try to disrupt the state or challenge the validity of the election, no matter how bitter they felt.
Love of country overcame personal ambition.
Despite this long history of peaceful transitions resulting from elections, there is widespread fear we are heading into a disastrous presidential contest. Trump already has questioned the integrity of the election, railed against voting by mail, accused Democrats of rigging the vote, and stated he would not necessarily accept the results.
And what’s really scary is people believe he would have no hesitation about shredding the tradition of more than two centuries about peaceful transitions.
What does this say about us? It says we have put a man in the highest office of the land who has no respect for our country, its traditions, and its harmony. And it says we believe he is so vile as to tear the country apart to further his own gains. He cares about nothing but himself.
The only solution is to vote him out of office by such a large margin that even Republicans of no principle will be forced to accept the fact that his tactics won’t work now, and they should abstain from them in the future.
If we do not do that, then we must accept that our country is lost, that immoral character is successful, and that we deserve what we get.