Four years ago I wrote a blog post after the 2016 election. I was disturbed with the result and what it meant. It is sad how little has changed and how apropos much of that post is to the current situation. It seems that the lessons learned from the last campaign only made this one more ugly, not less. And the discourse between people on either side has become more hateful and vitriolic, not less.
In that post, I expressed concern about the racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry that had been expressed during the campaign. Unfortunately, I was right to be concerned and some of my worst fears have been realized. My hope was that despite our differences we would "not sit idly by under the rubric of tolerance and let our country be warped by those who espouse these ideas." That hope was not realized. As time passed I came to the sad realization that many people had not voted for Donald Trump despite his less desireable qualities and opinions, but because of them. Let me emphasize right here than I am not generalizing. There is no such thing as all Republicans or all Democrats believing anything. I hate it when I see FB posts that condemn half the population with a particular set of beliefs. We are all individuals and our beliefs are just as individual. But it is nonetheless true that a significant number of Trump voters shared these (to me) objectionable opinions and still do.
After the election I saw many messages reminding us that our friends and neighbors were still our friends and neighbors even if we voted differently. I agreed with that message. I have many friends and family members with whom I have political disagreements. We have usually been able to discuss them civilly even though we rarely changed each other's mind. I was OK with that. I myself had differences of opinion with both of the presidential candidates and knew that whichever was elected, they would do things that I wouldn't like. So I took a "wait and see" attitude and hoped for the best. That hope was in vain.
Although I expected to dislike some of the things that would take place and the decisions that would be made, I was not prepared for what happened. Within one week of inauguration the President issued an executive order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. As a member of a minority religion, this struck a nerve. People said to me, "Oh, you know that would never happen to Jews in America." Do I? I was not so sure after what happened in Charlottesville and the president's comment that "there were very fine people on both sides." As time went on and more of these types of things happened, I waited for elected officials and my friends on the right to step up and condemn these actions. By and large that did not happen. Some remained silent, but some actually endorsed the comments and added thoughts of their own supporting them. It was sad, but telling, that I had friends (of all political stripes) contact me and tell me that if "things went bad" I could come to them and they would hide and protect me. The fact that such an offer was even considered a possibilty is quite daunting.
I am not going to go through a laundry list of what has disturbed me during the last four years. My point is that although I liked some of the policies of this administration, the tenor of the statements and actions in the wider context disturbed me greatly. I might have been able to overlook some of these things to get other things I liked, but the events of 2020 ended that. There are many things I will tolerate, but lying, willful ignorance and the ignoring and condemning of science while millions of Americans get sick and hundreds of thousands die is not one of them. Any moral right this administration had to remain in office died with those victims.
Now I know there are those who will say that I have been sucked in by fake news, that I am living in fear and even if all of it is true, there are more important things to consider. I cannot agree. I do not expect any president to be an expert on everything. But I do expect them to find the relevant experts and listen to them. I do not expect followers of the president to threaten one of the country's leading experts on infectious diseases to the point where he and his family needed protection because he had the chutzpah to contradict the president. I do not expect political pressure to be put on respected agencies like the CDC to loosen it's medically sound guidelines on how to reduce the spread of the virus to suit the president's desire to reopen the economy and improve his chances for reelection.
Finally, for me, this all comes down to one thing - character. Character defines who we are and the way we behave. The qualities I believe make up good character include integrity, honesty, courage, fairness, and dedication among others. The Yiddish word mensch describes a person of integrity and honor. I want a mensch in the White House.
I began my post four years ago objecting to this message that I had seen on a church marquee many years ago,"Broad-minded tolerance is peaceful co-existence with evil." I ended my post four years ago with this modification, "Unlimited, unconditional tolerance is peaceful co-existence with evil." I am saddened that I have discovered more limits to my tolerance, but proud that I am willing to stand up for what I believe in and stand against what I cannot accept.
