To the editor:
In America, there are certain things we do without giving a lot of thought about why exactly we do them. In October we dress our children in elaborate costumes and send them out to panhandle candy from neighbors. In December, we prop up dead trees in our living rooms and festoon them with ornaments and electric lights. Sometime in March or April, we hide perishable food around the house and then encourage the children to find it all before it spoils. In the heat of summer, we go outside with a supply of gunpowder and matches and play with these explosives until they run out, and consider it a good time if we exhaust the supply before someone gets injured.
These are strange things to do, absent the context in which they are traditionally done. Take away the symbolic importance of these activities, and what you get is nothing more than aberrant, and in some cases dangerous behavior. It doesn’t stop people from doing them, however; it’s probably safe to say that very few people ever question why they’re dragging a potential fire hazard into their home for an extended period of time. Our grandparents did it. Our parents did it. We do it, and our kids will more than likely do it when we’re nothing more than photos on a wall. But it ceases to have any real meaning if we are acting only out of habit. Forgetting the purpose essentially makes the entire exercise meaningless.
This is what has happened to our political system.
There is no other way to explain the nomination of two scurrilous, unrepentant liars for the highest office in the land. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are despicable human beings, worthy of nothing but scorn. They both behave as if the rules we have established to maintain a civil, productive society do not pertain to them, and they are willing to do and say anything to get what they want. Their presence on the national stage is like the mold on a piece of bread; it is the outward manifestation of a rot that existed, invisible, before coming to fruition.
On November 8th, we’ll all trudge down to our respective polling places and vote, and that act will be as meaningless as a Christmas tree in the home of an atheist.
By nominating Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, we as a nation have already demonstrated that we are only going through the motions when it comes to choosing our representatives. We no longer even pretend to care about character, about morality, or about the rule of law. We can barely rip our gazes from the hypnotizing glare of our smart phones long enough to avoid stepping in slop on the sidewalk, let alone pay attention to the future of our nation. Now we are left with a pair of reprobates who have no business near any position of authority, vying for our nation’s highest office, with little more than a whimper from the people who will be doing the choosing.
John Adams said that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” We have reached the point where the Constitution will soon become wholly inadequate for us. Self-government requires a degree of engagement and moral fiber that no longer exist in our country in sufficient quantity.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represent the last, rattling gasps of the Republic, the end of our country’s struggle for self-government and individual liberty. The people have decided that self-government is just too much trouble, and we are approaching a time when we will no longer be governed at all. We will be ruled.
