WAKENING: Confessions of an Apolitical Idealist
While always exercising her right to vote in both local and national elections, my mother was perceptive enough to recognize that her day to day life would not be too greatly impacted by whomever wangled their way to victory. Growing up and growing older, this seemed true enough. Democrat or republican, donkey or elephant, books needed to be read, reports written, homework done, dishes washed, laundry folded, babies fed, flowers planted, cakes baked, leaves raked, snows plowed. Like my mother, I exercised my right to vote in local and national elections but politics, like religion, was a topic I avoided. Everyone, I believed, had the right to their own opinions. When Trump won the election, I argued with a friend who refused to accept that this conman was leader of our country. In four years we’ll have to vote him out, I said. Meanwhile, he’s piloting the plane we’re on and I’d rather he didn’t fail. Besides, I thought to myself, no matter who occupies the White House, there’ll be cakes to bake and leaves to rake. I had such faith in democracy. Such faith in America’s ideals. We had fallen short before, but hadn’t we learned? Weren’t we on a truer path to justice and equality?
Three years and three months of Donald Trump has scorched my naive assumptions about truth, goodness and fairness. And it isn’t just Donald Trump. It’s the minions who follow and defend him. While each of us has the right to our own beliefs, we haven’t the right to our own truth. While we may debate issues, we cannot debate reality. Donald Trump stands before the American people and denies the very words we heard him say the day before. Those with the chance to hold him accountable for his betrayals repeat and defend his lies, deny and deflect the ruin his actions have caused.
My mother was wrong. I was wrong. Elections matter. They matter a lot— not just on the world stage, but in every nameless corner where Americans endeavor to live honest, peaceful, unassuming lives.
Donald Trump did not create Coronavirus-19, but his lies, narcissism and ineptitude have caused manifold confusion and untold anxiety and loss.
There may yet come a time when I will wash and fold, plant and plow without worrying that the leader of my country is trampling the cherished ideals so many died to preserve. There may yet come a time when I will trust that elected officials will honor truth and fight for dignity, equality, liberty and justice for all.
That time isn’t now. That elected official must not be Donald Trump or any politician who supports him.
