No matter who: accept it
November 12, 2020
We live in the United States of America, where everyone has the opportunity to let their voices be heard and vote for the leader of this wonderful country. Sometimes the election does not go the way you want. Regardless of the result of the election, being violent and throwing a fit is not the answer.
We see our cities boarded up and destroyed just because people think it is okay to ruin things when they do not get what they want. In the last four years, the left has not set an excellent example of how to act when you do not get your way. Our cities have been destroyed. Riots run rampant. People are assaulted and bashed for their views on public platforms. So far, the election has not necessarily gone the way I want. There are 71+ million disappointed Republicans, yet not one city has been destroyed.
No matter what political party you belong to, we all should learn that throwing a fit when you don’t get what you want does not help anything. It makes everything much worse. Instead of having a conversation to resolve an issue, there is too much drama involved, and nobody can get their points across. When we have civil discussions, we can understand the other point of view and find common ground.
Sometimes things do not always work out in our favor. That is just the way the world works. We need to accept the results of the election and move on. If Joe Biden was legally elected, then he will be the president. We do not have to like it, but we can’t act irrationally. And if Donald Trump turns out to be once again elected as president because of fraudulent voting on the left, we still need to accept it. Our country has been extremely divided this past year. Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.” This is so true. Whether Republican or Democrat, we are all Americans. We need to come together as Americans and hope for a better future, no matter who the president is.
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Jake M.
Nov 17, 2020 at 2:32 PM
Hi from an alum! You make some very good points here, but I would add that no one should be trying to discredit the results of democratic elections just because they don’t get their way. That is exactly what President Trump is doing right now by making unsupported claims that, as you suggest, “fraudulent voting on the left” led to the election being stolen from him. Hillary Clinton conceded immediately and acknowledged that Trump had won the 2016 election fair and square, and Mitt Romney, John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore (eventually), and every other major losing presidential nominee has been graceful and done the same. Losing candidates in both parties in major elections almost always concede gracefully and move forwards. I can only think of one major election (2018 governor in Georgia) where the losing Democratic candidate did not concede to the Republican. Since the 2020 election, officials in all 50 states have said that there is zero evidence of widespread fraudulent voting, and intelligence officials have said that this was one of the most secure elections in history. No one on any side should have ever been threatening to burn things down or riot, and all Americans who voted for someone else four years ago should have given the current president a chance to lead back in 2017. Many, but (unfortunately) far from all, Americans who voted for Clinton still tried to give Trump a chance to lead. Now, though, President Trump is trying to not only undermine Biden’s legitimacy, but burn down American democracy on his way out the door by seeking to convince his supporters that a democratic election in one of the world’s most free and fair countries was stolen from him. Mail ballots in Pennsylvania were only being counted after Nov. 3 because the Republican state legislature refused to let liberal-leaning cities start counting them in advance. No matter one’s political views, undermining democracy is very troubling. Preserving, protecting, and respecting our democracy is one of our greatest shared responsibilities as a society. I do agree with you, though, that our country is deeply divided and that we all need to try to foster constructive dialogue and move forward together. But making incendiary points about the other side of the aisle — or trying to tie the other side of the aisle to rioters and anarchists — is misleading and unhelpful to achieving this noble goal. That said, you are definitely a talented and persuasive writer and I applaud you for sharing your views even though I may disagree. I’m sure that you’ll write many interesting and persuasive articles in the years to come, and I’ll look forward to seeing them when I glance at this page.