The Battle Ahead

 

 

 

There was a palpable shift in morale after Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his vice-president this week.  Social media exploded with the news, and posters relished the possibility of a firefight between Harris and Pence in the debates.  People loved the idea of an elder statesman president and a post-Baby Boomer, Generation X candidate.  Add that to her ethnic and political background—a woman of color and former Attorney General of California—and there is a lot to be excited about with this Democratic ticket.

This is not the time for complacency, however.  The war has only just begun.  Trump continues undermining the election process, the government services that insure every vote is counted like the United States Postal Service, and using scare tactics like tweeting conspiracy theories to instill fear in the American voter.  He is playing to our darker nature, our suspicion of the Other, our misunderstanding of what it means to live in a free society, namely, that we are all responsible for each other (wear the damn mask!).

Our country has been badly damaged.  Across the board, there is not one relationship with an allied nation, not one social scaffold, not one area of American life that has not be diminished by this man’s presence in the White House.  It will take years to restore American credibility on the world stage.  It will take dramatic and far-reaching action to restore our environment, our economy, our sense of responsibility to the global community.

Most apocalyptic is the quagmire that is COVID-19.  Our way of life has been crippled for months because Trump failed to take responsibility and formulate a national plan to deal with the pandemic.  Biden-Harris have a plan, but executing that plan and breaking us free from the scourge of this virus will take a herculean effort by all Americans.  Schools that reopened are already seeing an uptick in cases.  Without a functioning education system in this country, our future is doomed.  Remote learning may work as a stop-gap measure, but we need to figure out a long term solution, either putting more money into distance learning or finding a way to make schools safer so that learning can take place.  Failing to educate children destroys a country.  There is no future without strong, accessible educational freedom for all children.

We are so desperate for change that all problems are equally detrimental and important:  climate change, gun control, the failing economy, unemployment.  Because Trump has taken no action, because he is guilty of dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice, because he has betrayed the American people (including his base, although they don’t seem to understand that), Biden-Harris, should they win the election, will take office at a perilous moment in history.  Democracy is an ongoing challenge to maintain, and a country must rise to meet that challenge.  Empires indeed end, but we still have a chance to avoid such an ending.  This election in November may be the turning point where we extend the American experiment, or throw in the towel and sink into some other form of governance, one that will not be kind to the middle class or the individual:  fascism, a dictatorship, or a totalitarian regime.

America is people, and as such, the people must pull together under the common ideals first expressed by our imperfect, but prescient forefathers.  We need to renew our Constitution, our covenant with each other.  We must pick up the baton and continue the race to form a more perfect union.  It is in the striving, the pulling together of all people across the country that our common strengths will be revealed, and we can work to shore up our weaknesses to restore America.

This week, we started the long road back.  We have a viable alternative to the disaster of the last four years.  Now we must be people committed to the common good of all, recognizing our shared beliefs and renewing the American Dream.  This is the battle to come initiated by this week’s event.  We are all foot soldiers for America now, and that is as it should be.