Practicing what you preach is important. My last column was about gracious winning and gracious losing.
To my President Trump-supporting friends, kudos for a hard-fought battle and condolences for your loss. There were some accomplishments during his first term that need to be acknowledged. There were also some heartfelt reasons that so many people supported him. There is no need to rehash the self-inflicted wounds that the past four years created.
To my Biden-supporting friends, congratulations on a hard-fought win. As difficult as the election was, the easy part is over. Now the challenge of governance in a divided country – suffering the economic and health issues created by the pandemic – begins. We are all Americans with a common love of our democracy. We are all tired of incendiary leadership. Calm leadership with inclusive methods of solving problems is what we crave.
The way forward will require compromises to be reached. There are some steps that will occur prior to the Inauguration on Jan. 20. The first is the resolution of numerous legal challenges to the election. Some of these more than 300 challenges were filed before the election and had to do with situations that are now moot which means no longer relevant.
On the other hand, the legal challenges to states that counted absentee and other forms of votes that came in after the polls closed will probably make it to the Supreme Court. This is a tough one, since the issue of not counting those votes is about as un-democratic (small “d”) as you can get. This columnist just can’t see the Supreme Court ruling to not accept those votes. What they ought to do is mandate that these votes be counted as they come in and be kept secret until the polls close.
Spending $60 million on these and other legal challenges seems to be money down the drain. The plurality of the vote exceeds four million. The number of Electoral College votes significantly exceeds the minimum required 270 votes. Even Fox News declared the winner to be Joe Biden. Let’s move on.
There is a long tradition of peaceful transition of power. There are many secrets that protect our national defense that need to be turned over. There needs to be an understanding from our adversaries that the transition will not weaken us. There is uncertainty as to the majority control of the Senate which will not be resolved until near the Inauguration. The pandemic will not lessen during this transitional period and the millions of economic victims of this disease will not have their suffering lessened without a cooperative White House and Congress. We need to set aside the harsh rhetoric of the past year and come together.
The next four years need to be about evolution and not revolution; restoration and not transformation. Sliding backward seems so much easier than going forward. Let us hope that the R’s return to the Party of Lincoln and Reagan and the D’s return to the Party of Kennedy and FDR. These leaders got things done.
We need to delete the word “Non-Affiliated” from our lexicon. We are all affiliated to the United States of America.
This column would be remiss if it did not express appreciation to the millions of veterans and their families who fought wars to protect our democracy. Veterans Day was Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020.
Perhaps the first step to reconciliation is that we all display the American flag on this important day.
Roger Carlton is a columnist for The Graham Star. He is a council member for the Town of Lake Santeetlah.