How will voters respond?

Chaotic times raise questions for 2020

Let’s begin 2019 first with reflection on the year just past. It was tumultuous, especially on the national level. And this next year, it seems, will be all the more chaotic.

One man, President Donald Trump, and his unpredictable, Twitter-fueled presidency are at the center of it all.

Maybe those of you who voted for him, who gave him the power he so relishes, still like what you see in this man.

Most of the rest of us do not. We literally fear for the country, even for our democracy, in his hands.

How he got the job, including the potential influence that Russia had on the outcome of the U.S. election in 2016, continues to be of grave concern. Is Russia or any other foreign power still meddling in U.S. elections? Presumably, the answers to those questions will become clearer in this next year.

What will happen next is unknown to any of us, although there continues to be talk of a Trump impeachment and even suggestions he may choose not to seek re-election.

All of that seems terribly premature, despite this year’s dramatic turnover in one chamber of the Congress.

Americans did vote in 2018 to return Democrats to power in the House of Representatives. They tired of one-party control as the Republican Party became Trump’s party.

There were many reasons behind the vote. They included bringing about more congressional scrutiny of the Trump White House and fortifying support for completion of ongoing investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and others.

That isn’t all that is expected, however. Americans want to see the Congress work to restore confidence in the government, to re-establish America’s place in the world and to override the obvious missteps of the Trump administration on a wide array of issues.

Of course, one house of Congress alone cannot make such dramatic policy change happen. Its members can try and, in so doing, they’ll help enlighten the people who can make real change later.

The real change makers are the American voters.

The one thing absolutely certain in this uncertain political climate is that the nation is ever closer to 2020 and the chance to elect someone other than Donald Trump to the office of president.

Even the most steadfast of Trump supporters surely must question at least some of what he has done in office. If they don’t now, they may by the time the 2020 vote arrives, which makes this year’s grooming of presidential wannabes all that more important.

Arguably, the number of potential candidates, including some in the president’s own party, reaches into double digits.

Can any of them be the man — or the woman — for this time? Who among them is capable of leading this nation out of its Trump-inspired morass?

Those are the bottom-line questions for American voters, who have almost two years to answer them.

Regrettably, much will happen to cloud the issues between now and the 2020 vote. Voters will have to see through everyone’s spin to evaluate those who offer themselves up for president.

The fact is, as it has always been, that whatever choice voters make will matter.

The hard lesson from the 2016 vote was that, with or without foreign influence, elections indeed have consequences.

All those voter choices, not just for president but also for seats in the U.S. House and Senate in 2016, had consequences beyond our collective imaginations.

So will decisions to come in 2020.

The difference, we can hope, is that voters know better what is at stake and will use these upcoming two years to take true stock of those who would lead us.

The nation’s future depends on it.