This Year's Election - Part I

This Year’s Election - Part I/ 13  August 2020/By: Lawrence S. DiCara

Every fourth year, I am on the lecture circuit, at schools and libraries, and other public meetings discussing history and political trends in advance of a national election. Alas, in 2020, my lectures will be transmitted via Zoom calls, rather than in person. There is plenty to discuss.

Thomas Edsall, writing recently in the New York Times, suggested that “The whole of liberal democracy is in grave danger at this moment” arguing that “Trump’s America has accelerated the authoritarian dynamic”. 

This year, however, there is much else at stake other than who is elected president. Most believe the numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the next Senate will be almost even, so every election – including in nearby Maine – is important. The United States Senate has been undistinguished, at best, during the McConnell Dictatorship. For those of us who are lawyers, the Supreme Court is at the top of our minds. I don’t think most Americans want ideologues on the Court of left or right, but we want competent and fair people who understand the law. 

 Here in Massachusetts, Ed Markey – my friend of almost 50 years – faces a significant battle, which most of us hope he will endure, so that he can continue serving us with good humor and grace. Believe it or not: Ed is the only Democrat elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in my lifetime who has not run for President!

It has been said before that this is most important election in our lifetime. In 2020, I believe that is really true. What is at stake is not only the soul of our nation, but also our image among the peoples of the world.

What also is at stake is that most American of ideals – that every American is to be judged and respected on account of their own merits, not the class or cast of their ancestors. In recent years, activists on the right and left have often advanced arguments without reliance upon history or traditions.  They denigrate those who do not concur in toto with their positions on important issues. 

 Many are resentful of all that we have accomplished as a nation. They are ignorant of, ungrateful for, and resentful of many of the sacrifices that millions of Americans have made so that we can remain free and so that all of us (and I mean all of us) continue to have the right to express our opinions. 

The public square is being vacated by those who feel under assault. Our great colleges and universities abdicate by yielding to the elimination of any topic which might be of offense to anyone, rather than encouraging the marketplace of ideas which many of us enjoyed while in college. Far too many agree with a Princeton student, Eric Ching, who was quoted as follows in the Daily Gazette: “What really bothered me is, the whole idea that at a liberal arts college, we need to be hearing a diversity of opinion.” I would counter: why go to college if all of your opinions are formed, and you do not want them challenged? 

A recent letter published by 153 prominent writers and artists in Harper’s warned against an “intolerant climate” specifically “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.” Sadly, some of those who were the signatories have now asked that their names be removed under pressure from strident colleagues. 

Every election has a cadence of its own. Anyone of my generation has vivid memories of 1960 – the first Presidential Election that I followed closely. Those of us born right after World War II were impressionable young people in 1960.  To us, Eisenhower was grandfatherly; history tells us he was seriously ill for long periods of time during his Presidency. 

In 1968, I was a Harvard student. The Year The Dream Died was the aptly named book written by Jules Witcover. 1968 was also an important election because of the threat posed by George Wallace; many thought the election would go to the House of Representatives with uncertainty as to the result. As in 1912, 1980 and 1992, there were three significant candidates. 

There are similarities to both the 1960 and 1968 elections.

Race is an issue. Recently, Donald Trump characterized the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Regulation as an existential threat to the suburban way of life. In a Tweet addressed to the “suburban housewives of America” he said “Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American dream…. I will preserve it and make it even better.” Sadly, this year, Trump’s rhetoric reminds us of George Wallace’s oversized role in the politics of that earlier era. The political winds are odiferous.

Our economy is on the ropes. 

Character will be an issue in the coming weeks. Nepotism may arise as a topic of intense debate. Both candidates have made statements which I expect they might regret. Trump’s peccadilloes are more recent and more objectionable.

Herodotus wrote many years ago “The cities that were formerly great, have most of them become insignificant!” Might someone writing history centuries from now say the same about the United States in this era? Seventy-five years ago, at the end of World War II, no one would have questioned that the United States of America was the predominant power in the world. We had led the forces of the free world to defeat virulent nationalism in its ugliest of forms. The United States controlled approximately 50% of the world’s industrial production. 

History written long after our time will reflect upon the tumultuous nature of the world in which we are living. For generations, some had suggested there is evidence of “decline and fall” of our nation. I would hope that is not the case.

History tells us that Adams and Jefferson hardly agreed on much of anything, yet they worked together to craft a nation. After the votes are counted, “grownups” must be encouraged to cross the aisle to make America a better nation rather than cower in their respective corners and pout like small children. We need to begin anew.