Don’t be dissuaded

Americans won’t give up on democracy

Election Day falls on my birthday this year. The last time a presidential election took place on Nov. 3 was in 1992 when I was young enough to believe that with some luck I still had about as many tomorrows left as yesterdays. I spent my 41st birthday in Little Rock celebrating the election of Bill Clinton, full of hope for the future of the country and bursting with pride that our state was sending one of its own to the White House.

It’s a very different feeling 28 years later. I could have never imagined all those years ago our country would find itself where it is today. Americans from every walk of life are understandably worried. Quiet yet palpable anxiety abounds. We know we are better than this.

This year’s election arrives at a time when our country is in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic that we’ve been warned will worsen in the coming months. Our economy is severely depressed. Our American house is deeply and dangerously divided. Fear, anger and mistrust run rampant through the body politic. Civility is in short supply. Social media, talk radio and cable news fan the flames, bringing out the worst in some. Public discourse has sunk to a new low. Facts, evidence and truth no longer seem to matter as much as they should.

For the record, I’m among those millions of American voters who will choose to hold Donald Trump accountable at the ballot box for his failed and chaotic leadership, his perpetual dishonesty and his unacceptable conduct. I’m one of those who believes our nation will be irreparably damaged if Trump is awarded another term as president. That said, nothing written here will change a single vote. Minds are made up. People are ready to vote.

Registered voters across the land will rightfully determine who the next president will be. Yet without facts or evidence to support it, President Trump repeatedly makes false claims of voting irregularities and he is evidently planning to undermine the outcome of the election if he is defeated. That’s a direct threat to American democracy. Due to his own irresponsibility, Trump has made this more than an election between himself and Joe Biden. It’s now also a contest between Trump and democracy. It remains to be seen who wins the election but be assured Trump will lose his battle against democracy.

Casting a ballot is a citizen’s only real opportunity to hold a president and other elected officials accountable and to have a small say in the future direction of the country. Voting is one of our most precious rights, a cornerstone of our democracy. But for the first time in American history we have a sitting president who, in concert with his enablers, is actively and unabashedly engaging in suppression efforts designed to hamper voter turnout and working full-time to delegitimize mail-in ballots by calling them a “scam” to try to set up a protracted and destabilizing election contest in the courts if he gets beat.

But suppression efforts will fail because people are prepared to bear any burden to vote in this election and will likely do so in massive, record-breaking numbers.

President Trump has even been unwilling to tell the American people he will abide by the will of the people or promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election. That’s unAmerican and terribly dangerous, especially at a time when the country is so polarized. It represents an alarming threat to our nation’s stability.

Nothing in our Constitution or laws allows Donald Trump to decide if he will step aside if he is defeated. Nor does any president have the authority to determine who can vote and who can’t or which ballots will be counted and which ones won’t.

In the end, attempts to diminish our democracy will fail. Too many people have fought and died to defend American democracy and no one, not even a president, will be allowed to cripple or destroy it. American citizens will never let that happen.

We are blessed to live in a country where we are each free to form our own opinions and to cast our ballots accordingly. The right to vote is at the foundation of any democracy and essential to keeping this grand experiment we call America alive. It’s the way we ensure President Lincoln’s enduring words at Gettysburg, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Elections have consequences and the one this year will be profoundly consequential in numerous ways. If you are a registered voter, don’t let any person or a pandemic stop you from participating in one of democracy’s most vital gifts — the opportunity to give voice to your beliefs by voting.