A New Day.....

My fellow citizens--

We are complacent and overconfident about our security as a democracy.  We have learned over the past several years that what we once thought were bedrock values in terms of our moral and civic foundation are actually porous and penetrable.

So now we are at a pivot point.  Tomorrow we will decide as a nation whether we change our direction based on the warning signs that have been flashing red since November 9, 2016.

A majority of Americans prior to November 2016 were naively certain of our democracy and its solidity.  We couldn’t imagine its disintegration.  We couldn’t see how our country would be threatened by the forces unleashed by the election of Donald Trump. 

To be sure, there were hints and signs of unrest.  A major part of our body politic was infatuated with a ‘savior’ who said he would solve all the problems that were percolating up as a result of years of forced inequality and deprivation of the rights and aspirations of the middle class.  This new wave of populism hinted at the pool of anger just below the surface of our collective awareness, and the desire for revenge against the ‘elite’ and those who were ‘other’.  We saw the trends, but still believed that we were safe—nothing really could corrupt America we thought….

The premise put forward by Trump that immigration was the monster ruining our country became a compelling distraction to his base.  So the disaffected minority belched forth its anger and hatred, with the encouragement of its provocateur President.  And make no mistake about the fact that he is THEIR President and not the President of all of us. 

We could be wrong about our misguided perception of what the majority of our country looks like.  The polls leading up to the midterm elections are not definitive.  I know that I am in disbelief when I watch angry citizens who somehow believe the tripe that is being fed to them on a daily, minute by minute basis by Fox News and other right wing, so called ‘news outlets’.  They still love this man in spite of all the horrible things he represents.  Truth is not important to them.  It’s easy to ask yourself, “Who are these people??”  The uneasy, unsettling answer is that they are our neighbors and the majority of our current leaders.

We, as Democrats and Independents, and even as people of good will of no particular party, may have mistakenly believed that our moral foundation was somehow secure, that this couldn’t really happen in the United States of America.  So, now we face the real test.  What is our moral character as a nation?

Does our tolerance of free speech have any boundaries?  Is there no stopping the fountain of lies vomiting forth from Trump’s fetid mouth? Can we sit idly by and watch our ideals as Americans be twisted and corrupted by this genius of division and hate? 

I submit to you that the events of the past ten days: the attempted mass assassination of the best of our former leaders who have devoted their lives to public service; the mass carnage perpetrated by a Neo-Nazi intent on killing as many Jews as he could--these are the cherries on top of the horrid cake already full of other indigestible ingredients being ‘cooked up’ by Donald Trump: disdain for the rule of law, lying to the American people daily, blaming the media as  ‘Enemy of the People’, stoking fear and hatred of immigrants, steering our economy toward bankruptcy from uncontrolled debt, etc.  Do I really need to itemize all this again?

As inconceivable as it once may have seemed, this one man has been a catalyst for the emergence of the decaying rot of prejudice that he encourages as he stokes the flames of division from the chanting mobs at his rallies, and that has lain just under the surface of our civic discourse for years. 

This election tomorrow is not the entire answer.  It is, however, the fulcrum of the tipping point that will determine the future of our nation and ourselves.  We all must pray that the results of this most sacred obligation and exercise of our right to vote will herald a new day of optimism and truth.  It is a chance for those of us who believe in the concepts of fairness, integrity, honesty, compassion and humanity to restate our commitment to those ideals that are the bedrock of our Constitution and our republic.  If we regain at least part of the Congress, the road will still not be easy.  The potholes are large and many.  Until we begin to shed ourselves of the Republican sycophants and remove President Trump from the scene, we will still be in mortal danger as a democracy.

However, we must make a start to take back our country and to imbue it once again with the ideals that our founding fathers so brilliantly imbued in the Constitution all those years ago.

I wish all of us good luck in our quest for a righteous result and a turn to the light that is the promise of this great nation, the United States of America.

Please VOTE!