Today is Presidents Day. It’s a good day to review the basics of American civics – our form of government and its three separate but equal branches, the role of each branch, the Constitution and its meaning and power in our system, and the meaning of our Constitutional Federal Republic which is a representative democracy - a form of, but not a pure, democracy.
With knowledge comes power.
In terms of the presidency, once we know what we are voting for and why,
then we are able to select the best individual for that job. It is not about for whom we are told to vote
or whom we might like or dislike for other reasons. We then can vote for people who are actually
qualified for the job, not who simply hold a label of Democrat or Republican or
simply most popular. The corollary to
this is that we know we do not have to, nor should we, vote for anyone whom we
believe is not qualified. That doesn’t
mean simply someone we don’t like or someone whose policies we may not agree
with, but someone who actually is not qualified.
In my opinion, in 2024 neither Trump nor Biden is qualified
to be elected President of the United States of America. Biden because his mental and physical
abilities are not up to the demands of the office and because he often
disregards the importance of some American freedoms. Trump because since 2020 he has shown a
disregard towards the institutions, courts, and Constitution that a President
must swear to uphold and protect.
While I can, and have, voted for people whom I am not
delighted with, with whom I disagree on some important issues, I have felt that
even with faults, even with not being made of superior presidential stock, that
these people were at least qualified to hold the office. I do not feel that way about either of our
leading presidential candidates this year.
So, a choice between Biden and Trump, for me (and I believe
for many Americans) is really no choice at all.
If one sees it as simply picking the lesser of two evils, one must
remember that even the lesser is still evil.
I do not believe that we should choose to go along with, to make such a
choice. And I don’t think that I am the
only one in this predicament.
As I think about this today, I also have in mind Alexei
Navalny, the Russian dissident who was killed last week in a Russian prison
camp above the Arctic Circle. In reading
about him, as well as some of his own statements, interviews, and letters, one
thing that is clear is that he believed that one should never give up, never
concede to that which one knows is wrong.
Rather than stay safely out of Russia after an assassination attempt,
Navalny returned to Russia and faced torture and ultimately death. But he was not afraid to stand up for truth,
for what is right. His soul remained
free. In an interview in 2022 he stated
that “If I am killed, my message is very simple: Do not give up.”
Compared to what Navalny faced, it is a simple act to refuse
to vote for either Trump or Biden. And
yes, that leaves the likelihood that one of the two will be our next
president. That is also true if I do
vote for either one. But if a mass of
people were to vote for neither, while it might slightly raise the unlikely
possibility that a third candidate would win, it definitely makes a clear
statement that neither candidate is acceptable.
And it leaves those voters who choose to vote for no one that they find
unqualified with a moral and political and patriotic sense of clarity that can
begin to set an example for others: the current state of affairs is not
acceptable, is not right, and we will not go along with it.
Our country is a mess.
Perhaps the whole world is a mess.
But it will never be repaired if we just choose to go along and join the
mess. Navalny knew that only too well as
he nonetheless chose to face early death as he stood for what is right and set
an example, based on dissidents before him, for those to follow that we must do
what is right if things are ever to change.
In a letter to a fellow dissident less than a year ago Navalny wrote:
“But I continue to believe that we will correct it and one day in Russia there
will be what was not. And will not be what was.”
Navalny was aware that this is a long haul and no one
person, no one act, no one election, will fix what is wrong, be it in Russia or
America or the world. But he also knew
that if no one acts, if we don’t actually engage in the long game, nothing will
change. It is up to us to stand up and
do what is right.
An American election is nothing like Russia whose problems Navalny
stood up against and died for. What an
easy thing it is for us to say we will not vote for either of the two major
candidates because neither is actually qualified to lead our country. Yet many will not do that, simply doing what
they have always done, vote for one of two parties based on any number of
reasons that are not connected to the qualifications for, and duties of, the
office of president. Too many will
simply concede, go along, and pick one rather than stand up and say neither one
is right for America in 2024. And so,
nothing will change, no movement forward will take place, and America will
remain the mess it is or devolve further into the hatred and tribal warfare
that both candidates encourage.
You may recall the story of the Christmas truce of 1914
where soldiers on both sides of the war, sworn enemies, came out of their
trenches, set their weapons aside, and celebrated Christmas together
recognizing that they were all just people with the same thoughts and prayers
in their souls.
Think of these people as Americans today. The politicians, the power hungry, have
taught us to hate, have made us enemies of one another, and it is they who are
leading us into war with one another, if not with the entire world. We need to put aside that hatred that they
are fomenting and see the humanity in all of our fellow citizens. We need to see their souls and find our
own.
We need to remember that America is a country of tolerance
and compromise and show our leaders that we will not accept those who see it
otherwise. And we need to let our current leaders and prospective leaders know
that the people of America can and will join together to do what is right for
America. If we stop to consider what is good for America as well as for our own
selves, and if we vote accordingly and perhaps by voting against both major
candidates, we can take a step forward in the long game of doing what is
right.
We have a choice beyond a choice between two evils, beyond
accepting that we must vote for one of two men neither of whom should be
president. We can choose to vote for
someone else or for no one. We may end
up with Trump or Biden for president (though perhaps not), but even then our
votes can help to restrain their actions as well as guide America’s future.
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