KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON … TO THE BALLOT BOX

Like clockwork, every 2 years an election occurs. Usually, polls let us know who is projected to win, but sometimes the results come as a huge surprise. To me, nothing was more shocking than Donald Trump’s victory for the Presidency 4 years ago. I don’t believe that even Trump expected to win.

 As a Monday morning quarterback, I rationalized the upset by thinking the public relied heavily on a national image that was finely honed by NBC‘s promotion department. For more than a decade, the network enhanced Trump's image, to encourage viewers to watch the long-running TV reality show, “The Apprentice.” Throughout the day, promotional spots were constantly run promoting Trump to be a strong, no-nonsense, decisive Chief Executive, who always made correct decisions. Ironically, the catchphrase for the series was Trump pointing his finger and saying, “YOU’RE FIRED!” Ultimately, that was the person America thought it was getting as Trump rode down a gold escalator on a wave of national popularity into the White House. After he won, it was a truly jaw-dropping moment for the national media, who, backed by numerous polls, had repeatedly assured the nation that Hillary Clinton would be the winner! 

Before the election, Trump had never shown any interest in serving the public. He never went through the political “apprentice “ program of being elected to a local or state office. Trump went directly from his reality show board room to the Oval Office without any political experience or even a basic understanding that he had been elected “to serve the American people.” 

For many, not being “a politician” was considered to be a key attribute. The downside here is that by not paying his dues and bypassing the learning process of becoming a public servant, he was deprived of accumulating the experiences needed to cater to an eclectic American public. Even before the election, Trump was not the type of candidate one would call “endearing.”

Here was this guy doing and saying things that were considered “politically inappropriate,” shooting from the hip with wild and oftentimes hostile, unscripted comments and far-right conspiracy theories, running for President. It was a brutal campaign, but Trump prevailed while taking on the role of the proverbial bully on the playground. After the primary smoke cleared, his Democratic opponent, Clinton, ran a highly scripted campaign. She was a savvy and politically involved former first lady, former Secretary of State, and former United States Senator from New York. She was also being investigated for using a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Department email accounts maintained on secure federal servers. That faux pas is considered to be a federal crime. Even though no charges were filed, an investigation was still going on a week before election day, so voters went to the poles in 2016 under that dark Democratic cloud.

The result was Trump won the electoral vote, not the popular vote, and has since settled into the White House as the 45th President of the United States. During the past 4 years, he has operated the Executive branch of our government much in the same manner that he ran his Trump Organization. There were heavy turnovers of executives while he found a “team” of compliant department heads. No one in his Administration has “job security.” Trump continued his “shooting from the hip” style of leadership by posting a steady stream of rambling and often incoherent comments to his 80.5 million followers on social media. While engaging in this form of communications, he stomped on more than his share of toes. We have discovered there is no subtly to the President. Either you’re with him or against him. If you’re an outspoken opponent, he will retaliate with a potent arsenal of hate-speech. 

Today we are living in the fallout of a corporate executive being thrust into an office which makes him one of the powerful leaders in the world. It has resulted in passionate divisiveness! Trump displays no compassion or empathy. In the business world, showing those emotions may show a lack of resolve or weakness and detract from concluding a deal; they have repressed during his entire professional life. 

When a disaster happens, he has relinquished the President’s role as the Chief Consoler into the Chief “finger pointer” as he tries to place blame. Trump swoops into a crisis, while local residents are reeling, and adds insult to injury. In Puerto Rico, after a devastating hurricane that caused multiple fatalities, pain, and anguish to the island, he criticized the leadership of Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, the Mayor of San Juan, while posing for a photo-op of throwing paper towels to local victims. Recently, with the catastrophic California wildfires, Trump blamed Governor Gavin Newsome for the devastation saying he was responsible due to the accumulation of leaves and a lack of forest management! Trump failed to mention that 65% of the fires burning were on federal land!

Those who like Donald Trump are fanatic supporters! They are passionate. All have MAGA hats and defy health guidelines and willfully make themselves vulnerable to contracting the Coronavirus by gathering shoulder to shoulder at his rallies without masks. They watch nothing but FOX News and listen to Rush Limbaugh calling information from any other media, “fake news,” a term coined by Trump. Most believe the pandemic is fake, a “Democratic hoax,” invented to defeat in incumbent President, and some adamantly refuse to wear masks and showing hostility to those asking them to put one on. 

On the other side, those who oppose Trump, vehemently hate the guy! They don’t just disagree with his position on healthcare, climate change, the environment, or abortion rights, they think he is a curse on our society that needs to be exorcised. They look at him as a man who is directly responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 Americans because, in his own taped word he tried to “play down” the dangers of the Coronavirus, in doing so, they feel he lied to all Americans! They firmly believe he is destroying our planet by reversing many Obama environmental policies and leaving the Paris Climate Accord. They also believe our President is encouraging and supporting white supremacy movements around the country.

Four years ago, when Trump began his Presidency there were massive women marches in every major city in America. They were peaceful and impassioned. This time around, many believe there will be riots in the streets no matter who is victorious. There are armed right-wing militias on one side and violent left-wing agitators on the other. Trump has already told his followers that if he loses, it will be because the election was rigged. Meanwhile, MSNBC is doing full shows speculating on what would happen if a defeated Trump refuses to leave the White House, discussing the hypothetical global view of photos being shown of our military forcibly removing Trump from the White House.

Our democracy is going to being put to a test this November. Will we have a peaceful transfer of power or retain an incumbent President who is both intensely loved and reviled?

Here we are, 244 years into a democratic system our forefathers created to give individual power over the government that represents them. For the first time, there are doubts in our minds if we can maintain the dynamics of our republic. 

Election Day in a normal year is a momentous undertaking but Voting Day 2020 will be even more challenging. Amid the undercurrent of a worldwide pandemic, millions of people will be voting on November 3rd, many others will be expressing their collective opinions through mail-in ballots. University of Florida political scientist, Michael McDonald, who specializes in voting behavior, says this year’s election will be “a voter turnout storm of a century.” It’s estimated more than 156 million people will go to the polls, a huge increase over 2016 when 139 million people cast their ballots. Why? Because this year there is an inordinate amount of passion and emotion spilling over into politics from both liberals and conservatives. 

The one major component missing here is respect. Our mantra “I disagree with your position, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it” now seems passé. Family members are not talking to each other, friends have become estranged because of politics and a climate of intolerance has infiltrated our political views. 

Here is where we need in leadership: respected, influential bipartisan parties rising to the forefront for the good of our nation and our democracy. It is imperative to provide a shot of rational thinking to this process and assure us all that the will of the people will prevail.  

The US has shown resilience in the past during more turbulent times. During the Watergate crisis, this country was a model of stability to the world as we stood tall when President Nixon resigned, and President Gerald Ford became Commander-In-Chief. When President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One, with the coffin of his predecessor in the background. Our country profoundly mourned his passing, but there was a smooth transition of power and we forged on.

Politics in this country has always been like a pendulum that swings left and then 4 to 8 years later, swings right. Political parties will come and go (have you heard of the Whigs, Federalists, or the Bull Moose Party?), and so will political figures. The times we are living through right now will be considered history 20 years from now, but the freedom’s that our democracy affords us are unique legacies we need to preserve and protect for future generations. 

By villainizing those who feel differently about how to approach political and social issues, what are we trying to accomplish? If our society walked in lockstep, as like-minded drones with everyone sharing the same views, we would be living in some Orwellian nightmare and not the democratic nation we have always prided ourselves in being. Our greatest strength is that we sometimes disagree with each other but as part of a family of Americans, who experience shared freedom, we can still love and respect one another. Americans have one common, unifying trait, we love our country, we just have dissimilar views on how to make it better. 

Let’s seek ways to come together, not grow apart. Diversity has always been America’s greatest strength; it is why other countries have looked at us with such envy. Let’s not make it our downfall and an element that detracts from who we really are!