Today the curtain falls on this presidential election’s Act I. Only God knows the script for the days and weeks ahead.
If she loses, Kamala Harris has vowed to engage in a peaceful transfer of power. As Vice President and President of the Senate, she has said she will preside over the election certification process whether she wins or loses the election.
Donald Trump has also committed to a peaceful transfer of power — but only if he wins.
More than 80 million Americans voted early. For the rest, it all comes down to today.
On one side stands a candidate who cozied up admiringly to Vladimir Putin, exchanged love letters with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, mounted a coup, incited an insurrection, was convicted of 34 felonies (so far), withheld national defense top-secret documents after a demand for their return by the National Archives, was found to be civilly liable for sexual assault (27 other women have now accused him of sexual abuse; and don’t forget the Access Hollywood tape), and there is so much more. We won’t even mention passing the unfunded Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that will add nearly $2 trillion to the national debt and disproportionately benefit the wealthy, or the delayed response to Hurricane Maria, the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico, or the paper towel foul shots into a crowd of Puerto Rican victims, or two impeachments, or urging his Secretary of Defense to shoot protesters in the legs, or on and on and on and….
It’s all been so exhausting.
On the other side, we find a decent, compassionate woman with excellent credentials, who has been endorsed by hundreds of prominent conservative Republicans. These are civilian officials, national security experts, and ex-military senior officers, many of whom served in the first Trump Administration in high-level positions. All of these Harris endorsers vigorously assert Donald Trump is unfit to hold any office, let alone America’s Presidency.
And what is the worst thing we could say about her? Well, she has been accused of being late, very late, to see the seriousness of the border crisis or recognize she and President Biden were out of step with the rest of the nation. While “Border Czar” was not in her portfolio, the Administration certainly took too much time to take definitive action. But in Biden’s third year, with White House backing, Congress had a chance to attack the problem vigorously in a bi-partisan way, and was all set to do just that — until Donald Trump forbade it. Why? Because he needed the crisis to continue in order to have an attack issue. Most Republican Senators rolled over like submissive dogs, and nothing happened, nothing good, anyway.
Consequently, absent congressional action, President Biden issued an Executive Order that significantly lowered illegal border crossings in 2024.
At his rallies, Donald Trump has played the border issue like a Stradivarius violin, and much of America has been hypnotized by the siren song. It’s the only thing he’s been good at, stirring up a crowd like a Carnival Barker. Now, most Americans believe that, after the economy, the border crisis is the most important issue of this election. Lockstep, a large minority have marched right by all the former President’s documented moral, ethical, mental, and legal shortcomings. They don’t seem to care. Apparently, character and virtue no longer matter to many of our fellow citizens. Why is that?
For my part, for all the hatred, lies, dis-and misinformation, I remain hopeful and somewhat optimistic that the nation’s better angels will prevail. I have a belief that won’t be squelched that when each of us is standing in the sanctity of our own small, private space with a ballot in one hand and a pen in the other, we will do the right thing.
We will do the right thing.
