Can the Foundation Hold?
Written by Carter Welch
It’s about to come to a rolling halt. The 2020 presidential campaign seemed to last an eternity—maybe it did, Joe Biden announced his candidacy in April of 2019; Donald Trump has been running for reelection since his inauguration. Voting today will be a mandate on the status quo and President Trump’s turbulent first term. This nation will learn much of itself in the next week. It’s time for the United States to face the towering music, and it’s crucial that the nation bats away any threat to its wellbeing and its already damaged health—across all forums.
We have no option but to reject an attempt by the president to cast doubt on the election.
On the evening before the election, the weight of immense potential change and the burden of continuation (or perhaps of democratic uncertainty and a sense of general disintegration) pose grand pressure on us all. What we must do as a nation, however, is undeniable. In the face of rapidly corroding democratic processes and governmental responsibility, Americans shall be firm in demanding fair and transparent vote counting. We have no option but to reject an attempt by the president to cast doubt on the election. We must denounce and destroy movements to declare a winner prior to calculating real, statistically valid decisions. Americans of all stripes cannot afford to sit idle if the vitality of the nation is threatened. The people of this nation hold an innate understanding of what is right and ought to defend a country that once prided itself in its democratic fervor.
I will be clear here: the cracks of the past four years will become canyons if Donald Trump is reelected president. His primary goal has revolved around tearing apart institutions that uphold American democracy, as his attacks against the postal service, nearly every solicitor general who challenged him, mail-in voting, American governors, and his wide-ranging tirades against any American who dares not support him demonstrate. The president poses a direct threat to the stability in this country—what brutal actions will he find acceptable if he no longer must concern himself with reelection? His opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, is no apparatus for monumental change and uninspiring. Many Americans—especially young ones—are frustrated by the lack of dynamism, youth, and vigor that Biden offers. His shortcomings should not be completely ignored. But a President Biden does not imminently threaten this nation’s existence. A President Biden does not pave the freeway to authoritarianism and the oppression of millions of Americans. A President Biden, in the end, will represent all of America and likely beckon the nation back to its roots. A 2nd term President Trump may gut vast sections of the American electorate. He is a threat to the nation, hard stop.
The cracks of the past four years will become canyons if Donald Trump is reelected president.
We must protest, clamor, and fight.
But of course, the president may win the election by receiving 270 electoral votes. He currently holds a 10% chance of doing so, according to FiveThirtyEight. But what people fear most is the situation where he loses, perhaps glaringly so, and refuses to step down. The response to this scenario is obvious: Americans of all political stripes possess the fundamental obligation to decry his undemocratic maneuvers. We must protest, clamor, and fight. The foot of this nation will need to strike the earth in order to save its soul. I have confidence in our people, and I believe we hold the power to fight against nation-corrupting moves, whether they come from the Oval Office or not. And most of all, it is not a question of if the military will facilitate the democratic process. They will remove any figure who attempts to unjustly claim the presidency.
The sun will rise bold tomorrow morning; I will pray that America settles on the right future and on the right soul. I believe we will, and I know we will overcome our gravest challenges. The fear may be palpable and that’s okay. It’s okay to be afraid. It’s right to defy the uncertain. And on the eve before this nation takes one step forward or one thousand leaps back, you have to wonder whether we are uniquely positioned, at this moment, to be those who correct national gravity.
With hope, and with fear,
Carter Welch
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