Later, Comma

I got a call from Dolores two nights ago. She said it had been so long since she’d gotten a letter from me that she thought why not, she would give me a call. So, we talked a bit to catch each other up on our lives. She’s been doing fine, she said, and I told her it was pretty much the same for me. It was not completely true in my case. Election night still had me grieving, but I did not need to bring the subject up.

As we talked, I began to catch on that she was dropping hints. It was like she wanted me to know but didn’t want to come right out and say that she’d voted for him. But then in a whispered confession she let it slip. I didn’t ask why. I didn’t want to start an argument about it. I didn’t criticize her choice. We’ve had our disagreements, and it’s a free country, though maybe not for long.

In the moment, I said nothing other than trying to make a little joke about how our votes had cancelled each other’s. Our conversation moved on as such conversations do, both of us choosing the comfort of neutral triviality. We said our goodbyes, and I promised to write.

I ended the call, trying to keep in mind the idea that whatever happened we would still be friends, but I felt that same sick feeling that I had felt on election night when all hopeful doubt about the outcome of the election had drained away. Hope vanished in a puff of orange smoke.

I had believed that I lived in a country guided by the good faith of its people, by voters who would never elect a bald-faced liar, a felonious fraud artist, a convicted sexual assaulter, to lead the country and personify our nation. We all say we love our country and we want to be proud of our country, but I am not proud of this. Is he really us?

I can’t talk to Dolores about this. She’s all right with a woman being president. A woman would be okay with her, just not a Democrat.

I don’t believe the election was about inflation or any other issue. To my mind, if the election had anything to do with issues, the candidate with forward-looking ideas about helping new businesses, first-time home buyers, and parents should have won, not the candidate who talked about “retribution” and a country that used to be great. The candidate who supported bipartisan legislation to fix problems at the border should have won, not the candidate who scuttled that legislation and promised mass deportation. The candidate who believed in a woman’s right to control her own body should have won, not the candidate who boasted about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade. The candidate who would stay committed to providing arms to Ukraine to defend itself should have won, not the candidate who would “end the war” by appeasing Russia and forcing Ukraine to cede territory (allowing Russia to launch a future invasion to seize what was left).

I guess Dolores is not bothered by having a president who admires Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin. It doesn’t seem to trouble her that he denied losing the 2020 election and incited a revenge mob to ransack the Capitol and assault police officers. She doesn’t find it the least bit strange or disqualifying that he would use his presidential campaign to flog golden sneakers, watches, digital trading cards and bibles.

No, the election was not about issues, personalities, or age. Rather, he fed a culture that was already present before he appeared on the political scene–a culture in which Democrats are not to be trusted. Democrats, he told them, cannot win elections unless they cheat.

I think Dolores put her finger on it when she told me once that she had never voted for a Democrat. That’s where she—and millions of other fine Americans—drew the line.

He homogenized Democrats with words that reinforced the cultural idea that Democrats are “other” and not loyal Americans. On social media and in rally speeches he made Democrats unacceptable. He repeatedly called them “communists, Marxists, and racists.” He colored them as “radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” He said they “lie, steal, and cheat on elections.” Democrats, he implied, “would do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream,” because they were “radical left lunatics who want to destroy our country.”

The line must be drawn. What real American could vote for them?

It is the bigger lie that swung the 2024 election.

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Some other stuff for later,