Unsettled: Election, Thoughts, Emotions
Obviously, election news has been consuming our television, newspapers, and radios since last Tuesday. If you’re like me, it has probably also been consuming your conversations, thoughts, and even prayers.
As I sat down to pen my editorial this week, a range of emotions and ideas all want to flood onto this paper – none of which are specific to ag issues and all of which are my feeble attempt to make sense of the 2020 election. And I don’t have an answer, I am of the opinion we have yet to hear definitively who will run this country in 2021.
This quandary is the exact reason I am having trouble defining an issue, emotion, or point to hammer home this week. Rather, I’ve spent much of my time since Tuesday pondering the state of our country – its economy, its wellbeing, and its citizens. For me, it’s been a very unsettling week and I can pinpoint several reasons why.
First and foremost, is the concern of honesty, integrity, and trust.
Our great nation was founded on the idea that the people give the government power. The power rests with the people. And the government can only function with the consent of the people it governs. Plain and simple – popular sovereignty.
But today, and in our 2020 election, it was not that simple. Concerns of voter fraud abound just days after the election. Glitches in software used in swing states, missing mail-in ballots from our military, sharpies placed in voting boxes, votes from deceased citizens… you name it, it’s probably come up in the 2020 election.
When our country stood in a state of great division, we all held our breath leading up to election day, cast our ballot, and prayed that through a fair and honest vote of the people, God’s chosen leader would emerge. But as I anxiously watched polls close on election night, the glimmer of hope and faith in the idea that the people would choose what’s best for our nation slowly faded away. And in the days to follow, despair seemed to replace it.
How have we veered so far from our founding principles in this country that we cannot trust an election? We can’t be sure that the people’s voice was fairly heard. And now, one-week post-election, we can’t rest in the idea that we have a president in place for 2021 that was honestly given his power by the people.
Not everyone believes that voter fraud occurred and I’m sure for suspecting such, many will discredit my thoughts. But even the widespread discussion of it means our country is in a state that requires much evaluation.
Voter fraud isn’t my only concern when it comes to honesty, integrity, and trust. To make matters more unsettling, I don’t know what to read and trust that I can believe it. One source will verify the claims of overturned votes after the software glitch was identified. Another will “fact check” that claim and find it invalid. The news is a constant flurry of opposing headlines. Whether it be CNN or Fox News, or any publication in between, having multiple media outlets tell completely opposite stories leaves me wondering, “who can we believe?”
The simple fact that we must question our election, question the coverage behind it, and question that the people are being honestly represented is perhaps what leaves me so unsettled this week. It’s not that I don’t know who the president will be in 2021 – yes, that is nerve-racking… but it’s that the founding principles of the United States of America seem to be null and void in 2020. If the people lose their power, where does that take us? The answers to that are greatly unsettling, to say the least.