The upcoming election terrifies me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I truly believe that the American people will reject the fear and incompetence of the Trump Administration. In fact, I think the outcome will be so overwhelming, that all of the worries about Republican maneuvering to somehow \u201csteal\u201d the election will be washed away in the tidal wave. This isn\u2019t going to be an overwhelming election in support of Joe Biden. It will be an election of rejection of Donald Trump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And my belief is not just a \u201cheartfelt\u201d desire to believe. The poll numbers back up my prediction. Joe Biden is running a couple of points ahead of Trump here in Ohio, and running well ahead in the \u201cBlue Wall\u201d states, and Arizona, and in North Carolina, and is even close in Florida and Georgia. And before everyone gangs up and says, \u201cwell the polls said Hillary would win too,\u201d those polls were never this good. The final polls in late October showed Hillary winning, but were all close to the margin of error. The Comey letter nailed the coffin shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we were all burned in 2016, so it\u2019s more than normal to be worried again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And even if Biden wins, I am certainly worried about how far the Trump Administration would go to \u201crig things\u201d in the two months from election to inauguration.\u00a0\u00a0McConnell is already showing the brazenness of pulling a \u201c1984\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Black is white, yesterday\u2019s enemy is today\u2019s friend, and while Obama couldn\u2019t nominate a Supreme Court Justice ten months before the election, Trump can put one in today even as we vote.\u00a0\u00a0All we need is the Ministry of Truth and the Orwellian nightmare will be completed.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe we already have one too: look at the Centers for Disease Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, my terror comes from the possibility that for my whole life, I may have completely misjudged America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s because I believe that Americans are at their base, a people of compassion. Americans are the ones willing to give when tragedy strikes. And it\u2019s not just money, but food, supplies, labor and time. They are the folks with boats who showed up in Houston to save thousands flooded out in the hurricane. Americans have been checking on their elderly neighbors throughout the pandemic. They are the twenty-something\u2019s who never thought about politics, but went into the streets to march and make sure that the lives of their Black friends mattered. They are people who go out in the middle of the night to find lost dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But somehow many Americans can\u2019t extend that same compassion to Central Americans whose situations are so bad that they are willing to risk the journey here. Americans care about their \u201cfellow Americans\u201d. What they struggle with is the peoples they don\u2019t know, and are now being taught to fear. The President said Monday that if Joe Biden were elected, people like Senator Cory Booker would be in charge and might come live in the suburbs. That\u2019s suburban high school football All-American; Stanford University tight end and Senior Class President; Rhoades Scholar, Masters from Oxford, Law Degree from Yale; Cory Booker. Oh, and yes he\u2019s a Black man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most Americans would love to have Stanford University Football Alum next door.\u00a0\u00a0Most Americans would love to have a highly educated and successful man on their block.\u00a0\u00a0And I believe most Americans see well past Donald Trump\u2019s racist rhetoric.\u00a0\u00a0By the way, Cory Booker can live anywhere he wants, but chooses to remain in urban Newark, New Jersey, where he was Mayor.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s not a penthouse suite:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s a townhouse in Newark\u2019s Central Ward, just down the street from a drug rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s my belief:\u00a0\u00a0most Americans, even those with Trump signs in their front yards, are compassionate.\u00a0\u00a0Some have been taken in by the rhetoric and propaganda. They are scared of the \u201cbrowning\u201d of America; a nation that looks very different from what they thought and were taught was the past.\u00a0\u00a0Change is always hard, and often creates fear. And America is confronted by change, demographically, economically, and environmentally.\u00a0\u00a0The fires are worse, the droughts are wider, and the floods are deeper.\u00a0\u00a0We can\u2019t ignore them, or pretend they aren\u2019t important because they only happen in \u201cBlue\u201d states.\u00a0\u00a0But they are scary for many Americans, and hiding from those truths is an easy, if ineffective, alternative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also think most Americans have a strong sense of right and wrong. And, even with the screen of Fox News, most Americans see that a lot of what Trump has done is wrong. They excuse it somehow to justify their support, but they still know. In 1964 Barry Goldwater ran for President under the slogan, \u201cIn Your Heart You Know He\u2019s Right\u201d. He lost in the worst electoral landslide up to that time. Americans know \u201cin their hearts\u201d that something isn\u2019t right with Donald Trump. I think most will make that clear in their vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what am I really terrified about? What if my doom-saying friends are right, and I have misjudged my country so badly. Is America not exceptional, not the place of compassion and hope I have believed in my entire life? What if America really is a nation of fear, and hate, and selfishness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, I don\u2019t know what to do about that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to do all that I can to get Americans to turn to their \u201cbetter angels\u201d and choose compassion over hate, acceptance over racism, generosity over selfishness. And I hope I don\u2019t have to wake up some morning this early November with the realization that I\u2019ve been wrong. There is nothing worse than seeing clear evidence that your faith has been misplaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll cross that bridge over the River Styx if I come to it.\u00a0\u00a0Right now I am waiting for the \u201crighteous might\u201d of the American people to be felt.\u00a0And I\u2019m pretty confident I\u2019m going to be right.\u00a0\u00a0So confident – that I can\u2019t sleep.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m writing this essay at two in the morning.\u00a0\u00a0But that\u2019s OK. Here\u2019s my challenge to Americans:\u00a0\u00a0come Election Day show me what you\u2019ve got!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"