Almost four years ago, on the morning after our Presidential Election, I wrote the following post which I titled Say What? In a few months we will have the opportunity to elect another President and I thought it might be informative to consider some of the character traits that were obvious to us in the campaign before the previous election so that we are mindful of how those traits have impacted our lives over the last few years. For me, the hands-down most important character trait is our trust in the person we elect. Can we trust our President to tell us the truth? Can we trust our President to act in our best interest as Americans? Can we trust our President to lead us through tough challenges we may face together? Can we trust our President to always, always be Presidential and make us proud to be Americans?
Here is that reminder:
Say What?
Last night we counted the votes in one of the most contentious Presidential elections in our history. For nearly a year and a half the American people were subjected to the rhetoric from the campaign trail and it was filled with hatred and prejudice of all kinds. In the end, the American people, one by one, voted and in so doing showed us all what our collective character looks like.
It doesn’t matter whether you voted for the right or the left, for Hillary or Donald, for Republican or Democrat – no, in our republican-democracy it is the majority that counts and in counting the ballots last night we clearly shouted out to the world just who we are and what we stand for.
With the sum of our votes we shouted to the world that misogyny is ok, xenophobia is ok, homophobia is ok, islamophobia is ok, lying is ok and the truth is whatever we want it to be, we consider everyone to be equal as long as they are like us, we said that the only rights that matter are our own rights and we should be able to do onto others whatever we want as long as it advances our cause. We are a Nation of self-interest and winning is more important than anything else. We have no sense of morality unless it is convenient at the moment and I suspect that our Lady Justice may not be blind after all.
Last night we counted the ballots and told the world that we are not the beacon on the hill that so many of them want to join. Only time will tell if we are, or ever will be again, worthy of the accolades we once received. For today, we have much sole searching to do both individually and collectively. We have elected the government we want and it is the government we deserve.
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