We, the People

I both look forward to and dread November 3. America is at stake.

In 1948, Thomas Dewey was seen by every pundit and publication as a lock to oust Harry Truman as president. Undaunted, Truman got on a train and made “whistle stops” back and forth across America, taking his case directly to the people. Not once did he even mention Dewey's name. He pulled off the greatest upset in the history of American politics. The people listened and they spoke at the ballot box.

I wept on the night Barack Obama was elected. Again, we, the people came through.

Yet, in twelve short years, “we, the people” has come to mean something far different from what it did then. The simmering darkness that has always lain just beneath the surface of American life was identified and stirred into the volatile mix that has resulted in the horror and tragedy that is Donald Trump.

“We, the people” is now an almost physical divide, a Trump “base” and a Republican Senate bent on destroying the founding principles of this country on one side, and on the other Americans yearning for a return to those same principles.

This could be settled – if that is the word – on November 3. It could also spiral into the delayed results that saw George W. Bush basically elected by the Supreme Court. 

As it stands now, Donald Trump et al are bent on destroying the United States Postal System as an instrument of democracy. In this terrible pandemic year, when mail-in ballots will shield so many from the virus, Trump is bent on choking off that alternative, even as he and his gimlet-eyed courtesan wife have already applied for their mail-in ballots, irony and hypocrisy be hanged, along with any regard for we, the people. 

Trump has openly admitted that he thinks that crippling the postal system will help his chances, which are receding daily in the polls. Did he make a mistake in telegraphing his plans early enough so that we, the people, can use our ingenuity and  determination to thwart this criminal enterprise?

I dearly and dreadfully hope so. There are uncounted millions of courageous Democratic voters who are willing to risk voting in person to staunch the flow of America's lifeblood. Bless them. And for the millions who need to vote by mail, there is yet time for postmasters, county clerks, and election boards to arrange drop boxes, early voting, and other means of making sure that the voice of we, the people, is heard. 

Harry Truman was truly “Give 'em hell Harry” in 1948. Joe Biden will give Trump his share of hell, but in Kamala Harris he has chosen a strong, brave, articulate woman who will bring her take-no-prisoners brand of hell to this  simpering would-be despot. She will indeed be nasty. 

We, the people, have been fore-warned. We have ample time, each and every one of us, to choose a way to vote that ensures that our voices will be heard – and counted. 

Because every vote desperately counts.