The people have spoken
To The Sun: It has often been written that at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers, “What have we got, a republic or a monarch?” His response reportedly was, “A republic if you can keep it.”
Yes, our liberty and freedoms are not locked-in-stone but enabled by our special form of government. It’s not a pure democracy, where 51% could take away the rights of the other 49 but a one-of-a-kind constitutional republic. It was designed to be governed by its citizens through three separate but equal branches of government: the legislative, executive and judicial. This is a place where sovereignty was intended to rest with its citizens.
Hence, relatively intense campaigns are often aimed at influencing our votes, such as with our recent presidential election. As millions expressed who we want to represent us in various branches of government and what policies and agendas we expect.
President-elect Trump was officially chosen as our county’s path forward, beginning Jan. 20. His proposed policies focused on border security; immigration control; inflation/economy; crime prevention; tax cuts; energy and manufacturing dominance; preventing/ending wars; missile defense shield for U.S.; U.S. military strength/modernization; protecting Social Security and Medicare; canceling the electric vehicle mandate; cutting costly and burdensome regulations; keeping men out of women’s sports; securing U.S. elections; and uniting our country through new and record levels of success.
Trump will win the Electoral College vote and won the popular vote.
In a perfect world, one might expect a united effort forward with the best interests of our country uppermost in mind. However, history reflects that, in absence of such perfection, the future will also entail a mixed bag of counterproductive behaviors, often fueled by ignorance, apathy, complacency, denial, intimidation, greed, corruption and other human-rooted flaws.
Nevertheless, many among us continue to hope for and encourage the day when we are much better at treating one another as Americans and much less tolerant of identity politics. These counterproductive behaviors seek to divide us into groups of victims and oppressors by way of ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, social background, caste, social class.
We will continue to enjoy the liberty and freedom-enabling blessings of our precious republic if we can keep it. — WILLIAM JAMES MOORE, Parsons
