NOTE. I am making this one exception to my earlier resolution not to get into political debates and acrimony, largely because the “if you vote for Biden you are in mortal sin” crowd and the “but abortion” crowd will soon become insufferable, and I can reduce my opposition to Donald Trump to one issue that transcends all others. I generally oppose one-issue voting, but this election is different. Whenever I hear “but abortion” my response is “but January 6.” So I have written this post and I have published this post and henceforth I will return to talking about happier subjects like why praying to Mary is not blasphemy.
do not like Joe Biden. (I think he’s a good guy, but as president I don’t like him.) I think he’s too old, he’s visibly showing his age, I disagree with probably 90% of his policies–including his support for abortion rights, including his support for same-sex “marriage.” But if this were an earlier year, if it were a very different candidate on the Republican side, all of that would actually matter. I would not hesitate to vote for Ronald Reagan over Joe Biden. I would not hesitate to vote for George W. Bush over Joe Biden. If the GOP did what it will not do and nominated Lynne Cheney, I would vote for her over Joe Biden. But that is not the election choice we actually do have, and for that reason none of those criticisms I have of Joe Biden matter.
Here is what matters:
•••
This is the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. If Donald Trump wins in 2024—as he very well may—I have no doubt whatever that Joe Biden will concede the election. I have no doubt whatever that Biden’s supporters will not break into the Capitol building on January 6 to disrupt the certification, I have no doubt whatever that they will not erect a gallows outside the Capitol and threaten to hang Kamala Harris. I have no doubt whatever that Joe Biden will conduct a gracious transition and show up for Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025. I have no doubt whatever that Joe Biden will not behave like an entitled moron on Twitter or file thirteen nanogazillion lawsuits to try to overturn state certification in red states.
That is the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and that is why I am voting for Joe Biden.
•••
It used to be, back in the good old days, that losers would concede that they lost. Losers would go home and say, “Well, that’s okay. We’ll try again in four years.” I miss those days. I miss the days when—I remember this very well—Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush and on election night Vice President Dan Quayle came out to concede and told his supporters, “If they run the country the way they ran their campaign, we’ll be fine.” His supporters booed, and you know what Dan Quayle did? He waved them down.
Losers did this kind of thing because they understood that democracy actually matters, and free elections matter. Richard Nixon believed that John Kennedy cheated and he was urged by many of his staff to challenge the results, but Nixon refused, and the reason he refused was because he thought that it would destabilize our democracy. And Nixon was right. Nixon—imagine writing this sentence—was better than Donald Trump.
(I don’t mean that Nixon really won in 1960, and I don’t mean Trump really won in 2020.)
Losers behaved this way because they understood that, however much their political ideals mattered, democracy mattered more, and that you can only fight for the policies you believe in within a functioning democracy. As long as the Constitution is stable, you may lose, but you can keep fighting and try again in four years. Without a functioning democracy, without a peaceful transfer of power, you don’t have that. You just have more blood.
For years, the peaceful transfer of power in the United States was the envy of the world, so much so that presidents commonly mentioned it in their inaugural address. In 2001, George W. Bush said: “The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, but common in our country.”
I miss that.
•••
In 2020, I told people that the reason I was not voting for Donald Trump was because I believed he was an existential threat to the nation.
January 6 proved that I was right.
One of the things my father and I bonded over when I was a teenager, and in my early twenties, was watching presidential election returns, watching the political debate programs, watching the inaugurations, talking about this issue and that issue. I would love nothing more than to be able to do that through this election year, but I’m not going to, and I have a simple reason why (apart from my blood pressure).
If you can live through January 6, and Donald Trump is still acceptable to you, then I really don’t know what I could say to convince you otherwise. All of my reason and all of my facility with words folds in the sight of such a wall. You have made your choice, and I don’t possess sufficient verbal power to combat it. All I can do, in my love for you, is tell you why he’s not acceptable to me.
•••
When I was studying literature in college and then graduate school, I was often told that the best conflicts in literature were not conflicts between absolute good and absolute evil. They were conflicts between good and good. The reason these conflicts made for interesting reading was because it was an opportunity to consider a hierarchy of values, and what goods are more important than other goods when they are in conflict.
The reason I’m voting for Joe Biden is because having a functioning democracy is my highest good in this election. Of course I am against abortion. (For example.) Of course I hate abortion. But it’s only possible to fight for pro-life causes within a functioning democracy. If I believe that Donald Trump is a threat to the Constitution, then I can’t vote for him even if his opponent is against every other issue I believe in strongly. I’d rather have a president who disagrees with me on everything but still have the Constitution, still have our democracy, still have the ability to try again in four years. I don’t trust that I would have any of that with Donald Trump, and January 6 is all the proof I need that I am right.
If the choice is between Joe Biden and watching the country I love die, I choose Joe Biden. But this election breaks my heart.
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