Bracing for the 2020 US Presidential Election

With hours away to one of the most important elections ever, we are all stressed, distressed, worried, anxious and perhaps even scared. Strangely enough everyone is scared, proving once again that fear (real or imagined- mostly imagined) underlies hate always. We are aware of the bizarre times we are living in especially and the significance of this Presidential election in the USA. And we are bracing in different ways for the unpredictable outcome that will shock us or delight us. Some people are stocking up on canned goods, while others are stocking up on guns!

What is strange is how we have become so used to talking in terms of “sides”- It is as if the country is split into two and the two sides can never sit at the same table. Our common ground, our common rules of civility, our common hopes and dreams and the most important thing- the truth and facts- have somehow vanished in this war for the soul of America. Serious issues like systemic racism, climate crises and global threats like COVID-19 cannot even be addressed as one nation- as in the “United” States of America!

People in a healthy democracy should be able to live with different value systems or even different priorities for the same values, but it should never reach this level of animosity. A recent Frontline series on Amazon Prime “America’s Great Divide” reminds us that the hate started way before President Trump- a woman called Sarah Palin made lies acceptable by inventing the term “death panels” as an Obamacare feature, and of course the…