Thankfully, the presidential debates are finally over. In just a few weeks the debacle and embarrassment that has been this presidential election will also be over. Never have two candidates been so loathed by so many. When one listens to people’s comments or checks out the postings on social media, it seems that almost no one is for their candidate. Rather they are against the other candidate. That’s not the best reason to vote for someone but it is what it is this year.
A rather large number of people are apparently choosing to vote for neither, choosing to stay home and not vote at all, vote for one of the third party candidates, or vote for all the offices except for the presidency. This election has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct on the one hand and corruption and lies on the other hand. One might have to go all the way back to the 1800’s to find an electorate so dismayed.
There are some passionate people of course, as there always are. There are the die-hards who would vote for a rattlesnake if it was a republican or a democrat. My family came from a long line of “yellow dog democrats.” That is, they would vote for a yellow dog before they would vote Republican. My maternal grandfather broke out of the pack when George McGovern was the Democratic nominee. He just couldn’t bring himself to vote for a man who he thought was close to being a socialist. I can’t even begin to imagine what he would think today.
Some in my family, once the switch was made, tended to see the Republican Party as the party of morality and of law and order. Indeed, members of Jerry Falwell’s “moral majority” tended to vote Republican. Having been burned by Jimmy Carter who was touted as “born again,” they switched to Ronald Reagan who talked the talk but, reportedly, Nancy held seances in the White House.
In past elections, one party and then the other could see its candidate as the “good” choice or a “bad” choice. At least, one candidate was “better” than the other. This year, the primary voters have selected what seems to be “the evil of two lessers.” Democrats are keeping an embarrassed silence about the Wiki leaks revelations regarding their candidate while a number of Republican leaders are distancing themselves from their own nominee.
But…it’s almost over. Just weeks from now one or the other of the candidates will be the President of the United States. One of the most loathed and distrusted people will be elected to the highest office in the land. It would seem like a comedy if it weren’t such a tragedy. But, maybe the opinion-givers, such as myself, will all be wrong. Maybe either President Donald J. Trump or President Hillary R. Clinton will be the best president, the most inspiring, and most respected leader in American history. It could happen. And if you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Tennessee I’d like to sell you.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at [email protected]
