Recovering from PTSD — Post Trump Stress Disorder
President Joe Biden has an enormous agenda ahead of him — both domestic and global. The most important item facing him and requiring his immediate attention is healing the country after insurrectionists stormed our Capitol building. If our country is to go forward and regain its standing in the world — its credibility as a beacon of democracy — the healing process must begin immediately.
Stated more simply, our nation must recover from its national case of PTSD — Post Trump Stress Disorder. The images we saw of insurrectionists were disturbing and are not credentials of democracy. We are a country that has had its democratic framework kicked, punched and battered. Biden, his leadership team and our Congress must be able to apply the balm that restores who we are as a nation.
The PTSD that our service members suffer after returning from battle is a long and difficult process to recover from. But unfortunately, if we are to move forward as a nation, the PTSD our nation suffers from after Donald Trump’s presidency must be treated immediately.
One way to accomplish that treatment has already been initiated by Sen. Tim
Scott, R-South Carolina. Scott did not join some of his fellow Republican senators in challenging Biden’s Electoral College win over Trump. Instead, he chose to certify the result. Scott said there was no reason to think the presidential election result should have been thrown out.
Nonetheless, Scott introduced legislation establishing a commission that will look at last November’s election to see how the election process can be improved in the future. Scott’s legislation would establish a bipartisan advisory commission charged with examining the integrity of the November election and making recommendations to state legislatures to improve the security, integrity and administration of federal elections.
Until an effort such as Scott’s is undertaken, our nation will be at unease, and Biden will be looked upon by many as being an illegitimate president. According to Axios, 40 percent of Americans and 80 percent of Trump voters say they believe Biden is not the legitimate winner of the 2020 election—the greatest proportion of holdouts in the history of American polling.
In introducing his legislation, Scott said the beauty of the American experiment is the ability to freely question our processes and build upon lessons learned. He said we cannot move forward without scrutinizing the issues that led to millions of Americans losing trust in our election system.
Sadly, while every election has a modicum of fraud, the circumstances around the pandemic led multiple states to make rushed and perhaps ill-planned changes to their election systems weeks ahead of the presidential election. Scott contends that Congress needs to act in a bipartisan fashion to examine these missteps made “intentional or not” in state legislatures across the country.
The commission would be chartered to examine several issues, including:
Practices regarding mail-in ballots, absentee ballots and vote-by mail procedures;
Practices that would have allowed improper or fraudulent voter registration or votes;
The scope of any improper or fraudulent voter registration or votes;
Practices that would bolster public confidence in the integrity of future general elections.
Biden needs to embrace Scott’s legislation and urge Congress to form the commission sooner rather than later. Until this legislation is undertaken and placed on a fasttrack, we will be seen as a country — both internally and externally — whose foundation has been weakened.
Scott’s legislation represents words of President Lincoln: “Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Against it, nothing can succeed.”
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says what Lincoln meant was when there’s a feeling that something goes against the ideals of the country, it’s up to leadership to help shape that sentiment. Accordingly, our country and the world need to be reassured that Biden is our legitimate president. Only then can we begin to heal and move forward.