Fixing America Begins in the Mirror

By now, regardless of what side of this vast divide you sit, all of us can agree that this country is in a deep chasm. We’re talking 1800’s Civil War-kind of chasm. I resisted this thinking until the last few days, when it became apparent that somewhere north of 40% of the country actually believes that a 74 point victory in the Electoral College (306–232) and a seven million-plus vote victory in the national election is fraudulent.

That’s a mouthful, but more than that, it is a mindful. The election is now over two weeks old, yet the President who told us — from the beginning — that he would not accept the results if he lost the election is — not surprisingly — not accepting the results of the election. And when I said he told us this from the beginning, I mean all the way back to the summer of 2016 before the election he won. Understand, as of this writing on November 19th, President Trump’s own lawyers are admitting in court, in front of judges under oath, that they have no evidence of voter fraud. Yet the claims from the President of voter fraud continue, and these claims continue to be believed by such a large portion of his formidable base.

As scary as these times appear, I have no concern that on January 20, 2021, President-Elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. The concern I have is that the current president is doing for the 46th President exactly what he did for the 44th President. He is using a barrage of lies and mistruths to insinuate that the next President of the United States is illegitimate. His obsession with convincing people that Barack Obama was born outside of the country and therefore, illegitimate is now being replicated by convincing people that Joe Biden did not win the election — and therefore is illegitimate. And a large swath of the country will believe Trump’s lies because . . . well, because that is what they do. They believe whatever he tells them to believe.

It is hard to blame them, because we have never seen anyone like Donald Trump. We have never seen anyone on the public scene who lies so much, so convincingly, so brilliantly. When someone lies to us, we usually can detect it because at some point a normal liar confesses and recants. We, however, do not know what to do with someone who lies, and then lies again, and then lies about their lies. Recall how Trump told followers during Obama’s presidency that he had seen the evidence — which did not exist — that proved Obama was born outside the country. Trump told followers that he believed this claim because he had personally seen the evidence.

Now, he is doing the same thing, claiming evidence that he has seen of voter fraud — which we know does not exist. How do we know this? Because as stated above, his own lawyers, when put under oath in front of a judge, step back and recant. I wish I could be in the courtroom to witness this. Seriously, how must that look?

Judge: “So, can you present to me any evidence, any at all, that proves that voter fraud occurred?”

Lawyer: “No, Your Honor.”

Yet a large base of people see this, and still believe the liar instead of their own ears and eyes.

So the cure for what ails us, ladies and gentlemen, lies in the mirror. Forget what Donald Trump is doing. Forget what Mitch McConnell is saying. Forget what Fox News or MSNBC is reporting. The question is this:

With the brain God has given me, and the eyes and ears he has blessed me with — What do I want for this country?”

Do I want division and a continuation of the hostility between people? Or do I want unity, or even a chance at unity?

You cannot change someone else. You can’t change any of these people on the political front. What you and I can do is change how we respond to these people. We can change how much power we give these people over our lives. And — I hope and pray — we can begin to see the scam that a champion divider pushed on us.

His scam? He convinced us that what is wrong with my life, what is wrong with your life is out of our control. It is someone else’s fault. It is an immigrant’s fault. It is a Mexican’s fault. It is a black person’s fault. It is a white person’s fault. It is an age-old scam that he admirably — and horribly — perfected. He got us to point our finger at someone else, and blame them for things in our lives that we can fix ourselves! It worked, because it is far easier for me to blame you for my problems than it is to blame myself, or to take accountability for myself. That, my friends, is how you win elections. You remind someone of how difficult their life is, and give them someone to blame.

So look in the mirror, and decide how you are going to live in a post 2020 America. You and I have two choices.

If you supported Trump, you can accept that enough people in the country did not support him, and move on. Or you can believe his lies and be agents of division for the next four years.

If you supported Biden, you can recognize that there was a reason that so many people supported Trump, and it had nothing to do with racism or sexism. It had to do with blame. Be the better human being, reach out to those people, embrace them, bring them back to us. Or, you can jump right back on your social media platform, and lambast them, making fun of them, and furthering this chasm.

In the end, it is clear that there was no fraud. How do I know? Because the Democrats didn’t win the Senate, actually lost seats in the House, and lost seats in state legislatures. So what that means is that many Independents and many Republicans took their ballots and voted for Republicans at the state level, in the House and in the Senate . . . and voted for Biden. If this is fraud, then it is the worst effort at fraud ever. Fraud would have delivered the Senate and Presidency to the Democrats. That it didn’t, that the vote was split just simply reaffirms what we are today.

Divided.