How many times have you heard winning politicians rationalize their post-election actions by saying that elections have consequences? At the same time the single vote of each of us has consequences and makes us individually responsible for what ensues from an election. Yet how many times have you cast a vote too quickly or too easily without thinking through your decision or taking the time to do a modicum of research on a candidate?
After the 2020 presidential election I wrote that “Our National Nightmare is Over,”(November 9, 2020)but I was wrong. It never went away and has arguably gotten worse. Too many of us cast our votes willy-nilly, or more deliberately, out of contempt for the Democrats or Hillary Clinton, regardless of the potential consequences for our nation. Our anger and partisanship made us take a chance and vote for Trump whose troubled reputation was constantly on display in news accounts and the tabloids.
As a result, our single votes cast for Trump helped bring about a bizarre four years characterized by incompetence and downright malevolence. Unfortunately the damage done during the Trump administration has continued post-election to threaten the stability of our government and our democracy. This same anger and virulent partisanship also threaten the very existence of the Republican party which ironically many of us have supported for its traditional policies.
The major travesties of the previous administration are a matter of public record that played out before our eyes on television in real time. Without Trump, thousands fewer Americans would’ve died from Covid-19, there would have been no attack on the Capitol, and there would have been no “Big Lie” about the 2020 election. That’s the truth.
Our votes have consequences.