We’ve Already Lost
I’m writing this at 5:42 am Wednesday morning in Los Angeles. The day after election day. Workers have been boarding up storefronts for the past week. I heard a gunshot ring through the air last night as I finally let myself turn off the pundits and get some sleep, as it was going to be a long day ahead.
The first thing I did when I woke up was to check my phone, to see if I had indeed slept through a repeat of 2016. I hadn’t. At least not yet. The pundits are saying to keep the faith, even though the present numbers suggest miracles of a more Biblical magnitude.
Keeping the faith makes sense, though. Democrats overwhelmingly heeded Coronavirus precautions and would therefore represent most of the yet-to-be-counted swing state mail-in ballots.
Yes, it matters greatly who wins the presidency of the United States, but regardless of the final tally, I feel like we’ve already lost.
Over the past four years, we’ve witnessed the President:
1. Befriend dictators and alienate our allies in the free world.
2. Line his and his friends’ pockets with taxpayer money, to which neither he nor the wealthiest of Americans contribute their fair share.
3. Toss kids into cages and misplace 545 of their parents.
4. Demonize the “other,” whether it be Muslim, Mexican, Black, or LGBTQ.
5. Take a stand with and for white supremacists.
6. Try to take away health care from millions of Americans.
7. Let the Coronavirus run rampant through the country, lying about its morbidity and allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to die needlessly.
8. Condone Russian bounties on our soldiers’ heads.
9. Dismantle many of the governmental offices that support our nation’s health and security, including the U.S. Postal Service.
I could go on. But I don’t need to. Because not one of the above issues stopped Americans from coming out in record numbers to cast a ballot for four more years of the same… or worse.
Because in the end, Americans are fearful… just as Donald Trump knows we are. And if he could just play into that fear, nurture it and let it fester, he could get four more years, if not more — if we let him.
We’re afraid — terrified, rather — of the other.
We may be poor. We may be unemployed. We may have pre-existing conditions. We may have lost people we love to Covid-19.
But at least we’re not…
…Muslims.
…Jews.
…Catholics.
…Mexicans.
…Illegals.
…Blacks.
…Gays, Queers, or the other.
We build great churches and temples to pray to a God who is nothing more than a projection of ourselves, and pat ourselves on the back when we take a stand against the unborn fetus while letting the living die from preventable causes. Our religion has become our armor, and our houses of worship our fortress.
We dismiss the God that wants us to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6:8),” by worshipping a man who exemplifies the opposite, insisting that the end justifies the means.
We arm ourselves (remember that Democrats are coming for our guns with one hand and letting criminals run rampant with the other), build walls, and keep the “others” out.
Hasn’t history taught us anything, America? Viruses maim and kill, fear of communism, socialism, or any other “-ism” does nothing more than turn citizens against each other, and walls come tumbling down.
After all, “something there is that doesn’t love a wall (Robert Frost).”
Criminologists are the first to remind us that nearly 80% of homicides are committed, not by the “other,” but by people we know.
It’s not the “other” we need be afraid of, America. It’s us.
