How Could We?

UPDATE: Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States.

I am thrilled with this result. But what is very dismaying to me and many other people is the fact that some 70 million Americans voted for a known narcissist, con artist, misogynist, sexual predator, racist, liar, draft dodger, cheat and white supremacist. For all those who claim "This isn't who we are," I say "This is definitely who we are." This election proved that.

We as a nation did not repudiate the corruption, bigotry and evil of this administration. We are a nation where 65 million Americans cast a vote for the most corrupt, racist president in generations. We are a nation where 70 million voters feel that this person represents their best choice for president, despite his failure to do anything to control the pandemic that so far has killed more than 230,000 of our fellow citizens. This is the nation where 70 million people support a person who thinks it's OK to discriminate against people because of their sexual preference. 

Seventy million Americans believe that sending in troops and using tear gas against peaceful protesters is acceptable. Sixty five million Americans apparently believe that assaulting women is fine. Some 70 million Americans are willing to cast their votes for someone who refuses to condemn Vladimir Putin after he reportedly paid bounties to Afghan insurgents for each American soldier they killed. Some 70 million voters believe that there "are very fine people" who are white supremacists.

Certainly not everyone who voted for the current president's* reelection believes everything he says and does. I don't agree with the platform of every candidate, but I also am not willing to vote for someone who promises to end Social Security, Medicare and Medicare if reelected. Why are people so stupid as to vote against their own self interest, when losing these social programs will harm the poor and the elderly far more than it will hurt the super rich? How can his supporters claim that they voted for him because "He is a Christian" when he is the opposite of what a Christian should be? How can they vote because he is 'pro-life" when under his policy, immigrant children are taken from their parents and locked in cages?

Do people simply vote for the candidates with an R after their names on the ballot? Are they so stupid and ill-informed that they don't bother to understand what the candidates stand for? Or perhaps at least some of these voters vote R because of the tax breaks multimillionaires and corporations get. 

Seventy million voters cast their ballots for someone who puts his racism and his misogyny on full display. Seventy million million Americans voted for someone who cares absolutely nothing about American citizens who aren't extremely wealthy and who can't help him in his eternal quest for power and wealth. How could women, Blacks and Hispanics vote for him after the cruel and demeaning things he has said about them? How could his claims that he is the "law and order president*" find traction with anybody when he repeatedly flaunts the laws and praises heavily armed thugs who invaded the statehouse in Michigan, even planning to plot and kill the state's Democratic governor?

How could we have been so very wrong about our country and its citizens? We believed there would be a 'blue tsunami' that would wash the racists and bigots and misogynists out of office. We encouraged people to honor the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by voting blue, by voting for the principles to which she devoted her entire brilliant, groundbreaking legal career.

We we so wrong. Moscow Mitch McConnell was reelected overwhelmingly. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina won a decisive victory over his Democratic opponent. The Democrats failed to regain control of the Senate; they even lost seats in the House while retaining a majority.

So, yes, America, this is who we are. We have failed once more the basic test of goodness and kindness, humanity and integrity. How sad is that.