The question facing the American people comes down to this: Would you rather live under a dictatorship or a democracy? One candidate represents one, and the other the other. Do you know the difference and who represents which?
In other words, how well educated are we? According to a recent survey by the Cato Institute, only 34% of the public can identify the three branches of the federal government! As if on cue, one of the first things Donald Trump and/or his cronies want to do is get rid of the Education Department. In line with this is a favorite target of “Make America Great Again” followers, the “elites,” which, almost by definition, are the best educated, the group least likely to fall for Trump’s famous dictum, “I alone can fix it.”
So, those of us who are educated need to spread the word and try to educate those who either don’t know or who are in danger of caving to the narrative being fed to them by the very sophisticated propaganda machine being used by MAGA and Vladimir Putin. We, who supposedly know better, must find a way to turn enough of the decidedly Trump voters and the still undecided into Biden voters. Are we ready for the hard work involved?
If we aren’t willing to fight now to save our democracy, then we don’t deserve to keep it. Vince Lombardi had a famous phrase for an unexpectedly close loss on the football field: “We did not lose the game; we just ran out of time.” We can never let this phrase describe our effort. This is not a game, first of all, and the time between now and Nov. 5 is all we will ever have, scary as that may sound.
Frederick Longacre
Hockessin
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
