That's one of the best essays regarding politics and the American spirit I've read in a long time. I'd always believed that anyone who was so far removed from the concept of democracy that they believed their political opponents were not only wrong but actually evil ... was simply a crazy.
The problem is that a majority (or at least a large minority) of Americans nowadays see a potential victory by The Other Guy as an existential doom. I like my candidate and I will vote for him because I think his team will do a better job for the people of the United States (and the rest of the world, hopefully). But if The Other Guy wins, there's not going to be a civil war. There will be lots of folks p¡ssing and moaning for a couple of months, then things will die down, and we can -- hopefully -- put our heads and hearts into beating back COVID and joblessness.
I think too many people, both on the Right and the Left, are getting their pantyhose in a knot by believing -- as some article of twisted faith -- that your political opponent is a devil or something. Yes, we have bad times now with the American ideals being sundered rather than brought together. Yes, we're faced with a nasty economy and a lot of people getting sick and dying from a pandemic. But demonizing anyone who doesn't think the way you or I do is not only counter-productive, it's also crazy.
May I quote Benjamin Franklin, arguably the first American, who said. "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately".
