It is not one party, and certainly not one man, who promotes or guarantees the endurance of our United States, nor solely promotes nor guarantees our freedoms. The Greek city-states continued for nearly 8,000 years, and Rome for 1,000. We are barely out of diapers at 244 years.
I want to persuade you that FOX News and CNN, pro-choice and pro-life, single-sex marriage and the ability to moderate same, the soil in which Amazon and Standard Oil (et cetera) have flourished and the power to moderate unrestrained growth — all this is because of the constitutional structure of our government. At the present time, but certainly not the first time, we are rendered seemingly unable to agree on very much. If you lived in China or North Korea or a nation where a president in power (not us, yet) has finagled an election, you would not be suffering this turmoil. Which do you want? An “il Duce” upon whom you’ve placed all your hopes, or a political system that allows, and has so far survived, years of rancor and division?
I want you to examine closely our presidential candidates to find, for yourself, which one more satisfactorily fosters the continuation of our system. Many in my own faith tradition are single issue voters. Yet, if the person who supports you in this one thing degrades our governmental functioning, you may be tossing a spanner into the very works which provides your right to object and to make things better in the future. Tell yourself, “The person with whom I disagree may be right,” even if their persuasion fails. Maybe look deeper yourself.
Jim Durand
Anchorage
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