Basket of deplorables

Voltaire is credited with saying “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”  From what I know of our Founding Fathers, many of them could have been and probably were influenced by Voltaire and certainly were influenced by other gentlemen of noble ideas.  The rebel leaders who became our Framers and Founders are men (and women behind the scenes) who risked their lives and livelihoods to pursue the idea that all men were created equal and all men should have the opportunity to pursue life on their own terms.  Now I know that many modern detractors with only a limited amount of knowledge about the Revolution and the men who caused it will throw up the fact that those men were slave owners and ‘sexists’ and somehow minimize their truly historic and world-changing accomplishments.  I will let that debate lie on the table for now.  What I won’t let lie is that even then, there was not one opinion.  Even then, there were bitter disagreements about the path our country should follow.  Patrick Henry, so instrumental in the fight for freedom from Britain, hated the idea of replacing the Articles of Confederation and  spoke passionately against the new Constitution.  Jefferson and Washington eventually became irreconcilable.  John Adams, outspoken and caustic, ruffled many feathers.

We have a long history of disunity in America.  It would seem that in many ways that a lack of harmony and the ability to be free to speak one’s own truths is, in fact, one of the reasons why our country has been strong and has grown into the world power that it is. We have always been able to rise above those differences – embrace them actually – and rest assured in the basic foundation that we might not agree with each other but still maintain respect for a variety of opinions…and ultimately upholding each person’s right to have that opinion.

That being said, I’d love for our current politicians, and especially those two who are running for the presidency, to keep in mind that in just a bit under two months, someone will be elected president and become the president FOR ALL THE PEOPLE, not just those who cast a vote for him or her.  This election has made mean rhetoric and the absolute lack of tolerance for another opinion the mainstream in America.  Our country is polarizing more and more each day. We are WE THE PEOPLE, not ‘we the conservatives’ or ‘we the liberals’.  Clinton’s comments over the weekend that described at least some of her rival’s supporters as “irredeemable” and “deplorables” shocks me and scares me.   How can she expect to unify our country and make it a better place when she has condemned a quarter of the electorate in such a base and intolerant  way?

We need to be on our knees…