The novelist and poet Charles Bukowski once wrote, “In the morning, it was morning, and I was still alive.”
He was describing the aftermath of a raucous night spent with too much strong drink — a poison Bukowski was much too fond of — but he could have been writing about our national, post-election hangover Wednesday morning.
Here we still are, in America, the freest, most just nation on earth. Yes, there are lingering headaches born of 10 months of partisan rancor that made this less like an election and more like a bar-room brawl. Animosity and enmity fueled the campaigns of 2020, but regardless of the outcome, we needn’t stay in this place of vitriol and anger.
Almost from its inception, the United States has suffered through elections that threatened to tear the nation apart. One actually did. In 1800, the first time a man named Washington wasn’t on a presidential ticket, the race between Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson was a dirty, even slanderous affair decided on ugly regional lines.
Jefferson’s victory would impel Alexander Hamilton to found this very newspaper, to wage war on the author of the Declaration of Independence. Sixty years later, the election of Abraham Lincoln would propel our nation to its most brutal, savage and just war — against the Peculiar Institution.
And yet through it all, our nation eventually came together. After all, no sooner does a party take power than it fears losing it, and no sooner does the other lose power than it starts to scheme for rule again. Thus, each seeks anew to appeal to broader swaths of voters.
In this, one of the most difficult years in recent memory, we have more reason than usual to embrace the abatement of the season of partisan anger. The fact that the election coincided with a viral pandemic felt like a veritable symbol of divine wrath.
Here’s another quote from Bukowski “The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.”
Nothing glorious here. We have devolved into utter foolishness. I dont care what your political leanings are; your right to vote comes with the respinsibility to know the facts and hold elected officials accountable to the truth. Unfortunately way too many of you clowns on both sides of the aisle have forgotten this. Your loyalty is to a party, a candidate, or to the idea of being a part of the bandwagon rather than being loyal to the country . God help us.
What I would like to know is if PA sent home all poll watchers and ballot counters at 9:30 and told them not to come back until 9 this morning how were almost 150k votes (majority Biden) added to the tallies between 3am and 6am???
Well if Biden wins you do not need to worry about dictatorship, you will have it all the way. Tell me how great it is when you have nothing and eating out of trash cans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!