TAKE A BREATH November 7, 2024

I’d planned a particular title for this post if Donald Trump won the presidential election, but Wednesday morning, I canned it.

The title: “Shame on America.” Why drop it? The American people chose Trump in a free and fair election. 

If you read my posts, you know I find Trump the antithesis of what a president should be. His campaign was appalling. But when I learned of his win, I decided the best thing to do was step back and take a breath.

I acknowledge that Americans have the right to vote for the candidate they prefer, not necessarily mine. As such, it’s time to seek a measure of calm across the nation. Joe Biden has reaffirmed the sanctity of the peaceful transition of power. So should Kamala Harris’s supporters.

Let me say here that I was conscious during Trump’s first term. I also watched January 6 unfold on television. But fanning the culture-war flames serves no useful purpose.

Granted, Trump’s new term threatens to bring out the worst in him and his minions. I anticipate that Trump will do many things of which I disapprove. At the same time, many Americans will approve. 

But drawing up a list of possible transgressions will do me no good. I don’t need an ulcer or a case of high anxiety. 

I often heard during the campaign: “Don’t listen to what Trump says. See what he does.” Imagine not taking a candidate at his word! What kind of person would you be voting for? (A politician.) 

Trump is a blowhard, so I don’t know what he’ll actually do compared to what he’s said he’d do. Potential scenarios are frightening. However, I can’t know in what ways Trump might be constrained to follow, to some degree, established norms. 

It’s incumbent on all citizens to speak out when some questionably (or outright) legal or immoral maneuver arises. As David French wrote in the New York Times regarding thinking through the election result: “two imperatives came to mind: defend the vulnerable and speak the truth.”

Rather than make general objections and accusations, I’ll wait until January 20. Then I’ll look for specifics I disagree with. At the same time, I’ll recognize that not all Americans agree on any president’s policies.

Will Trump be the bogeyman many Americans believe he is? Quite possibly. I think the United States would be better off under Kamala Harris, provided she steered the Oval Office towards the political center and away from the Progressive left. But we have to live with reality.

That said, let me offer a small prayer for America:

May the incoming administration realize that almost half of voters did not cast a ballot for Donald Trump, and the new president must act in service of all Americans. 

May sanity in the Oval Office prevail to recognize that some things should not be done, because they violate the spirit—if not the letter—of the Constitution. 

And may Trump and his coterie—and all of us—embrace the wisdom offered by Abraham Lincoln in his initial inaugural address. We the people must not be enemies but rather will ourselves to be touched by “the better angels of our nature.”

This is a hard breath to take, but—gasp—I’m taking it.  

Please pass on this post. And—

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