As the November 5
presidential election draws closer, reviewing our recent history, if only as a
reminder, can give the perspective we need to cast our votes, not as Democrats
or Republicans or belonging to Red, Blue, or Swing States, but as Americans.
In 2016, Donald Trump beat
Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States,
winning the Electoral College by 304 to 227, even though Clinton won the
popular vote by almost 3 million.
In 2020, Joe Biden beat
Donald Trump to become the 46th President of the United States,
winning the Electoral College by 306 to 232 and the popular vote by almost 7
million. Trump refused to accept the verdict of the American people and incited
an insurrection on January 6, 2021, by his armed supporters at the U.S.
Capitol, a date which will live in infamy alongside Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack
on December 7, 1941.
Four years on, and for the
third time in a row, Donald Trump is running as the Republican nominee for the
presidency of the United States, this time against the Democratic nominee
Kamala Harris. We are reliving the old saying: “The more things change, the
more they stay the same.”
Antisemitism, Islamophobia,
dehumanization of immigrants and conspiracy theories continue to fester in our
country. To the more than 67 million viewers watching the Harris-Trump debate
on September 10, the former president asserted the debunked claim that Haitians
in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors’ pets. At a news conference
three days later, he threatened to enact the largest deportation of migrants in
the nation’s history if elected. Mike DeWine, the Republican Governor of
Ohio, said this about Haitians in his state: “Springfield is having a
resurgence in manufacturing and job creation. Some of that is thanks to the
dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past
three years to fill jobs. They are there legally. They are there to work.”
America has rarely been as
polarized as it is on the eve of the 2024 election. Partisan politics is
crippling us. We are grappling with the same foundational values of our nation such
as democracy, the rule of law, checks and balances, and the peaceful transfer
of power as during Trump’s presidency. Add to these other issues like
reproductive freedom (supporting legal abortion despite the moral reservations some
of us may have about it), climate change, affordable healthcare, housing and
clean energy, gun control and artificial intelligence-generated misinformation,
and we understand why the 2024 presidential election may be among the most
consequential elections in living memory.
The contrast between the
views of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on these and other issues couldn’t be
starker, available online and in print to discerning Americans weighing who to
vote for, especially the undecided and the callously indifferent among us. As
Taylor Swift wrote in her Instagram message endorsing Kamala Harris to her
fans, “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all
yours to do, and the choice is yours to make.”
The presidency is not only about
policies and procedures or tariffs and trade but also about civility and
morality, honesty and integrity, among other character codes. We will do well
to remember and act on Ronald Reagan’s vision for America: “We shall be as a
city upon a hill.” We will do well to remember Abraham Lincoln’s words from his
first inaugural address in 1861 as a Civil War loomed: “We are not enemies but
friends … touched by the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln’s words did not
prevent a Civil War from erupting and dragging on for four ruinous years, with
a death toll of over 600,000 Americans, about 2% of the U.S. population then. While
a modern-day Civil War may be far-fetched, attempts by anyone to overturn the 2024
election if the results are contrary to expectations by inciting another
insurrection can cause an unbreachable and permanent rift among us that can dangerously
weaken our Republic.
So, when we vote on November
5 or earlier by mail, not just as a right but as a sacred obligation, we must
summon the courage and the wisdom to place joy over anger, humility over hubris,
compassion over cruelty, law over anarchy, science over ideology, democracy
over authoritarianism and most of all, country over party.
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