Why post? You Won't Change Any Minds.

Folks sometimes get exasperated with me for continuing to post my most heartfelt beliefs about politics.

• "Share your grandkids pictures," they say. 
• "Share a good recipe". 
• "Pet pics are nice". 
• "I like your wildflower photos and riverwalk posts". 

"But why all the politics stuff? I hate politics", they say. 

I know I will change few, if any, minds. Here's why I post: 

First, I want to give courage to like minded American patriots:

• Like C. who whispered to me as we descended the stairs from choir practice: "Terrell I agree with what you speak out about, but I can't do that; I just don't like conflict. Keep up the good work." 
• Like B. who quietly "likes" my posts but never puts any political posts on her own Facebook page. 
• Like J. who commented that he thought he was the only Biden supporter around and was so glad to find others. 
• Like the cousin (one of several relatives) who said she just has to stay quiet in our family to keep the peace, but is glad that I stand up against right-wing extremists. 
• Like the college classmate who has a family connection and feels stifled by family attitudes toward "liberals", but "so appreciates" my Facebook posts. 

I actually feel much like some of these people. I, too, despise confrontation and conflict. That's the reason that I started this blog in 2005. In my premiere post I explained my political principles and explained my need for a place to express my most important opinions in a non-confrontational way. Folks could choose to read them or not. My most treasured principles can be stated dispassionately (and sometimes passionately) and no one can legitimately take it personally. 

Secondly, I stubbornly hold out hope that a few folks will consider my words. Our society has become drastically polarized. 

• 37-44% will support Trump no matter what. They are Fifth-Avenue-Trumpists. 
• 47-51% are solidly against Trump and Trumpism. 
• That leaves a very small group of folks who are persuadeable, maybe 5-11%. These include many low-information and infrequent voters probably. It may include some folks who agree with some of the policy positions of Trump (abortion, immigration, etc) but are also aware of his racism, crimes, and threat to our national security. 

Like the well-known Lincoln Project Republicans, I want to do my part to encourage a very small group of 2016 Trump voters and third-party voters and stay-at-homes, to help restore our republic. 

It has been strange, disappointing, and hurtful to receive an insulting e-mail, some denigrating texts, and some accusatory comments on social media from folks I have loved either all my life or all theirs. That is especially true since the very existence of my blog and many later posts on my Facebook page and other social media has been to express my most basic beliefs without being perceived as insulting or confronting loved ones who disagree with me. That the office previously held by Washington, Adams, Jefferson through Clinton, Bush, and Obama has fallen into the hands of Donald John Trump is the greatest calamity to the republic during my life. It has resulted in the kind of anger that has been aimed my way, but more importantly it has resulted in, but far from limited to: 

• terrible national division and incivility 
• stress on our most important international alliances 
• military and economic and diplomatic victories for adversaries 
• putting us through a divisive impeachment trial by trying to coerce an ally into sliming an honorable political opponent.
• crassly demeaning American heroes while praising murderers and autocrats
• throwing millions off their healthcare protections with no replacement plan
• wasting millions and misusing military funds on a few miles of useless wall
• the worst pandemic response of any major nation in the world and therefore: 
•  millions of sick Americans, 
•  millions of lost jobs, 
•  untold sadness of families separated from their loved ones when they are needed most desperately,
•  Millions of students separated from classmates and teachers for many months 
•  211,000+ Americans (including a beloved 23 year-old former student of mine) robbed of their very lives. The president is going home to the White House from the hospital today, and is doing well; 347 of his fellow citizens also left hospitals today, but were taken to funeral homes. We would have lost thousands of citizens since February under any president, but Donald Trump's incompetent response unquestionably cost many thousands of lives.

We have a choice during this voting season (millions have already voted) that ends on November 3. The counting may last much longer than that. Anyone who wants to stop that counting before every ballot is tallied will betray that declaration officially dated July 4, 1776. 

The choice could be no more stark. 

•  It is between good and evil. 
•  It is between republicanism and authoritarianism.
•  It is between civility and shamelessness. 
•  It is between love and hate. 
•  It is between Americanism and whatever its absolute opposite is. 

Now, I love a bunch of folks who profess that what I have written above is far from reality. I do not pretend to understand that, but I have no less love for each of them. But my conscience will not allow me to be quiet about what I believe to my toes:  America is on the line in this election. I am absolutely convinced of that. I beg those I love to look dispassionately at the evil of the last four years under Donald John Trump and then at the patriotism and decency of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. To me there is no contest. 

To my loved ones and friends who support the other side, I will oppose your candidate and the demagoguery he represents with every fiber of my being in, I believe, an existential battle for the soul of our country. But still I say as Lincoln famously proclaimed in his first inaugural when the nation was being torn asunder 160 years ago:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”