"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
So spoke President Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of his first inaugural address, as the specter of a civil war loomed. (It would become a reality in less than six weeks’ time.)
We cannot reasonably expect this level of eloquence and empathy from our elected leaders—Lincoln is arguably the most soulfully articulate and expressive leader this nation has ever had. But we can reasonably expect a level of decency and compassion that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. seems unwilling or unable to summon. Asked why he went ahead with a campaign rally in Illinois instead of traveling to Pittsburgh to demonstrate solidarity with residents of that city after the deadliest attack on the Jewish community ever on American soil, President Trump flippantly said he'd “had a bad hair day."
By the time you read this, the polls will have closed in the midterm elections of 2018… well, maybe not quite yet in Alaska and Hawai'i. But as we await the results, we can only hope that they presage a return to decency, dignity, and decorum on the part of our elected officials and candidates for office.
Sadly, these attributes seem out of reach for the current occupant of the White House, but not so for the vast majority of those who stand for office under the banner of the political party that brought this sad, angry man to power. It appears that President Trump's revolting behavior in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre may have been the "last straw" for many registered Republican voters and elected officials.
The Sierra Club is an intentionally and determinedly non-partisan conservation organization, and we are keenly aware that the words "conservative" and "conservation" derive from the same root: conserve. As we grieve and think about those who lost their lives or their loved ones in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, it is to be hoped that the legions of decent people who identify with the party of Lincoln are grasping the fact that the current occupant of the Oval Office is a self-absorbed, mean-spirited bully who is becoming a pariah on the national and international stage and a drag on the GOP.
So, as we take in the midterm results, let us reflect on the health, resilience, and yes, the fragility of our nation’s unique experiment in democracy. It's not a given that the republic will survive if we allow a relative handful of mostly male plutocrats, beholden to big banks, fossil fuel interests, and the gun lobby, to continue calling the shots. But the numbers and the demographics and the sensibilities of younger Americans are not with them. As we confront the challenges ahead—and there will be many, climate not the least of them—let us hope we are indeed touched once again by the "better angels of our nature" whom our nation’s first Republican president invoked.