Jack of Harts

It’s election season in the United States of America, as everyone should be able to see. As usual in such times, charges of racism, sexism, genderism, and whatever other isms can be thought of have been flying all over the airwaves. Some people are labeled Nazis while others are called traitors. Policemen are called pigs and murderers. Senators exhort angry mobs to drive political opponents out of restaurants or other public spaces. Judicial nominees are accused of leading gang rape schemes and people corner Senators in elevators to scream at them while the media cameras are ready to record it all for posterity.

And the crazies are coming out in response to the rhetoric. Riots have erupted over the idea of tearing down national monuments. Envelopes full of white powder flitter through our postal service, and rape and murder threats fly through the Internet. One crazy walked onto a softball field and nearly killed a dozen and more Representatives. Others have walked up to police cars and filled them full of bullets leaving no survivors. Someone assaulted a Senator out tending his yard so badly he has multiple broken ribs. Yet another sent a dozen bombs that could never explode but could create an immense amount of fear to a dozen retired politicians and donors. And an anti-Semite walked into a Synagogue to kill and injure a dozen or more.

This is politics in the age of The Resistance. This is the age of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Times like this have come before in other nations. They have come in America before. Sometimes we have pulled out of it. Other times we have fallen into even darker times.

A part of me wants to paraphrase a famous poet and say “This is election season in America, nation of nations. Look on our works, ye mighty, and despair!”

Another part wishes to echo the old proverb that “It is always darkest just before the dawn.”

Which part will be more accurate? It is up to us to decide that. And decide it we shall, for it is election season in America!