Anyone living in the United States over the past several
generations can tell you that the American people have become increasingly
divided in their political outlooks. It
would seem now that those divisions are so diametrically opposed as to be irreconcilable. That, perhaps, is one dark path (or is that
two dark paths which diverged from each other?) that we may very well continue
to travel down. There has always been a
progressive/conservative divide in the nation, particularly since the turn of
the 20th century. That
divide, with the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of
the United States, seems to be widening into an impassable chasm. Even loving members of my own family are at
nasty odds with each other over this outcome.
(As a disclaimer, I did not vote for either egregious candidate of
Clinton or Trump.)
I noticed from the evening news that the Left has taken to
the streets in protest in many cities last night decrying the election of
Trump. They have tried to subtly or not
so subtly shame anyone that voted or supported the policies of Trump and the
Right. Some have vowed social unrest and
civil disobedience even. They are
fearful what the future holds for them in our country.
I get it.
I too was afraid and deeply troubled when President Obama
was elected in 2008 and then inexplicably re-elected in 2012. I had done enough research prior to his first
election to know that Obama was not whom he portrayed himself to be. Sadly, I was correct. That said, despite my disdain for identity
politics, I was at least hopeful that our first black president would be able
to further improve already-healing race relations amongst our citizenry. Instead, President Obama squandered this
opportunity and only inflamed race relations.
He did everything to replace one “oppressed” group with another. The good will instilled in him by all
Americans with his election was wasted.
Ironically Trump has now won on the backs of millions of
white working-class families that had previously voted for Obama. And yet, the intolerant among the Left such
as Van Jones claim that Trump’s election was a “white-lash” against a black
president. If one voted for Obama and
then subsequently voted for Trump, that would seem to me to negate the
facetious charge of racism. Indeed,
higher numbers of Black and Hispanic Americans voted for Trump than had
previously voted for Romney in 2012. Could
it possibly be that Americans voted for Trump over Clinton because of choices
in policies?
President Obama ran roughshod over the Constitution and
governed by executive order when he could not move his agenda forward by
congressional legislation. Further, when
existing laws ran contrary to his agenda, such as the Defense of Marriage Act
signed into law by Bill Clinton, he simply refused to enforce them as per his
constitutionally sworn duty. Indeed, he
often championed the overturning of such laws by the courts when he could not
get the peoples' representatives in congress to do his will.
Along the way, many of our constitutional rights were eroded, if not fully curtailed. Business owners
were challenged in court for practicing their religious principles, many to
their financial ruin. Our right to be
secure in our persons and papers unless a warrant was issued was fully
violated. The tenth amendment
guaranteeing States the power to do all that was not explicitly stated as
duties of the federal government became a laughing stock. Federal grants of funds were threatened to be
withheld for education etc. if States did not comply with executive branch
mandates to provide transgender bathrooms and privileges. And the right to LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness as stated in our founding document as a nation, was wholly
undermined with the pernicious HHS mandate requiring even religiously
affiliated schools, hospitals etc. to provide abortifacients to their employees
via health insurance, even when it was against their freedom to exercise their
religions as they had so chosen. Even a
half a billion dollars a year in tax-payer's dollars was given to fund the Planned
Parenthood abortion clinics throughout the country.
Hillary Clinton would have simply continued President Obama’s
failed and morally egregious policies and further restricted our constitutional
rights. She would have continued down
the path of anemic economic policies and continued to put herself above the
rule of law, all the while enriching her cronies and herself.
The Left fears that all of these “gains” for their various
constituency groups that they have garnered under Obama’s tenure will be rolled
back or stripped away once again. Where
these gains conflict with constitutional rights intended for all Americans, I
say that they absolutely should be eradicated.
That is not to say that we should be hostile to our LGBTQ
brothers and sisters and those that are fearful on the left. Indeed this country was not founded on “tolerance”
but rather on freedom and respect.
Freedom though is not in the doing of anything we want, but rather on
the ability to choose to do what we ought.
We ought to be respectful of one another, even when we disagree.
To the Left, tolerance is a virtue. It isn’t.
Further, their idea of tolerance only applies to those that agree with
their notions. Disagreement with their “enlightened”
view will certainly NOT be tolerated by them.
Respect must be afforded to all Americans by each of us, Left and Right, and especially with
those with whom we disagree on political and social issues.
Nobody is going to come and lock up law abiding Muslim or
Hispanic Americans. Nobody is going to
insist that gay people must live their lives back in the closet, which is
ironic since many on the Left want religious people to only live their faith
behind closed doors and not in the public square.
We are a wonderful nation composed of myriads of people and
their differing views. We will never all
agree with one another, nor should we.
We should continue to state, challenge, and live our views and
convictions. The debate of ideas is how
we come to find that which is the best amongst us. Denigrating and condescending towards those
with whom we disagree will only invite more of the same in return.
I lived through eight years of what many Americans
considered to be very destructive policies emplaced by President Obama. All of my friends and family on the Left that
are fearful of Trump’s presidency need to take heart. You too will survive, and even though I have
serious doubts about President-elect Trump in many regards, my hopes and
fervent prayers are that the country will be better off four years from
now. I tried to give President Obama the
benefit of the doubt at the beginning of his first term in office. Perhaps we all should try to do the same with
Mr. Trump. In the meantime, let’s
remember that we are ALL Americans and thus we are all in this experiment in representative
Democracy together.
