I am Terrified of November 4
By: Linda Moran
Tags: Politics, Civil Unrest, Depression, Mental Health, Election

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

I am Terrified of November 4

This is not hyperbole….

What will I wake up to?

Are we as a country still in one piece, or has our patchwork unraveled even further?

Will transition hopefully go peacefully?

I don’t know and I can’t guess…all I am doing is replaying possible scenarios in my head, and none of them are positive. I know I’m not the only one awake in the early hours.

No answers, no complete returns. I’m ready for that. I’m sort of ready for all the posturing from both sides. I am not prepared to see armed men (and yes, some women while we still have some rights) all around the country. In some states I expect it. But not the whole country…even rationale Vermont indicated they have a group of armed men that they are watching….

I remember 1968 because it was a year where something major happened pretty much every month, especially the assassinations and riots. At the time I wondered if we’d make it through the year.

That pales in comparison to this year. For four years we have had this election on our minds and in our wallets. Every day in email there are over 50 (I’ve counted) or more emails asking for money…same old scary headlines about how tight every race is. “Surging” in the polls shouldn’t mean going from 48 to 49%. If we put even a fraction of the money spent on various races, we could probably have paid off student debt and other needed things…such as some Covid relief.

I think of myself as a rationale, compassionate woman. I’ve wished ill to so many people this past year, primarily Marmalade Mussolini (Thank you, Michelle) and Moscow Mitch. Yes, our government has been broken for some time now, but nothing to this extent.

Violations blatant, treason obvious, nastiness the emotion of each hour. Headlines screaming that Biden will be shot within 3 weeks of a win….all while Covid is “disappearing.”

How many times can we check Snopes?

The fatigue is real, the unrest is real, the hatred is real, the mental health of the president is real…. but what astounds me more than anything is the lack of moral and ethical positions by the party in power and the lack of legal action by the party out of power. Money controls everything. Officials think they can get away with anything and everything, and they would be right.

The dangerous days are from November 4 until January 20, with particular concern on December 14th when the electoral college meets. Too many wild cards to assume that electors will vote the way their states did.

What executive decisions will be issued?

What sabotage will be left for a new party?

What rioting, vandalism, destruction, pardons, and lives lost will there be in those 60 days?

Don’t tell me the party in power will start acting like ethical humans and not try to ring the last ounce of capitalism that they can while violating our constitution in ways we never thought possible.

No checks and balances until January 20, if we are very lucky. Who will be pardoned? What will be destroyed next? Is it too late to think that we can bring forth our higher selves for the good of all our people?

In my darkest times when looking for the root of this embolism of power, I find myself blaming Bernie Sanders. When he first announced in spring 2015, I said he would split the party…and he did, third party votes gave us 45*. Fair or not, he was the impetus for rampant capitalism to rear its ugly head, no longer burying itself in the shadows. Plus, in fairness to Bernie, we as a not-necessarily-thinking-straight populace weren’t prepared for the vitriol and political assassination that was ahead.

In retrospect Bernie brought us to a very needed reckoning in our country…capitalism, racism, religious fanaticism, gun violence…all of which have festered below the white conscience, slowly making their way to full sunlight.

We will pay penalties for our missteps in the decades to come. The Supreme Court is a thorny issue with no easy solution beyond actually following the law and its precedents, as opposed to personal ideology.

More justices,

less justices,

impeachment of justices who lied during confirmation hearings...

whichever we choose has to potential to stoke the flames in a broken country.

Old-time politicians need to cede the way for younger people who want to put morality and ethical behavior back into public service, who want to work for an equitable society, who want no one in a sleeping bag under a bridge somewhere, who want our soldiers to have the care they need, who want to stop sending them to wars we have no business being in, who still have a livable planet.

I am terrified of the work ahead of us. I used to think, while I did my part in recycling, composting, reading and checking for facts, donating money when I could, talking to others (some of the older folks got upset with my “political correctness” when explaining why it was no longer Columbus Day in Vermont) and the like, that the reality of climate change was decades after I would be gone. How many of us have to admit that is no longer true — that we will be here and active when the planet morphs into something we don’t know? Climate change is here…most of us still have personal resources to survive….but what’s after Covid? What about the euphemism of food insecurity? Where are all the local gardens? Manicured lawns transformed into community gardens for our whole neighborhoods?

How do we reallocate resources?

How do we ensure that every person, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, education, economic level, and so on are a functioning member of this world, beyond minimum wage living?

No more BIPOC facing down guns and dying.

No more children separated from parents and put into cages.

No more politicians sucking the teat of capitalism to the detriment of all constituents.

No more judges letting personal agendas override the Law.

No more employers refusing to pay a livable wage so that “paycheck to paycheck” is not the norm.

No more corporations and individuals using loopholes and failing to pay their fair share for the community elements that all societies should have and utilize: roads, schools, police and fire protection.

No more fake news. Bring back an ethos of reporting where there are no alternative facts.

No more lying. Tell us the truth. How many people died today from Covid?

Learn what exponential growth and decay actually mean and assume the populace doesn’t need to have it dumbed down for them.

No more “us versus them.” There is no “them.” We are all in this together.

May the 4th be with us.