The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime...For Real

 

I apologize for that trite title. There is nothing more clichéd than political pundits and operatives urging "the base" to get out and vote because this is "the most important election of our lifetime," even when it isn't.

This time, it is.

To borrow from Dylan Thomas, tomorrow we will discover whether we are a people content to go gently into the madness of the MAGA night or whether we remain the feisty Americans of my youth who will "rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Polling suggests that rage is on the menu, and rightly so. Even those sunshine patriots who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Kamala Harris because they found her too politically stormy for their tastes seem motivated to visit the polls this time, ideological umbrellas in hand. Needless to say, those of us who spent the last two years warning about the dangers posed by a second Trump term are especially motivated.  We have been the resistance, waging a hit-and-run campaign against an evil empire in the making. Tomorrow is different. As Napoleon put it, it will be our bataille décisive for the nation's soul. Winner takes all.

And I mean that: this is a fight for America's soul.  In my recent reflections on The Devil and Daniel Webster, I explained how there was a persistent hint of sulfur around Donald Trump and his MAGA cohorts, a clear warning about their true nature. And, as with Jabez Stone, the American people were offered prosperity in exchange for their decency. Shockingly, 49% of the American people held their nose, pricked their fingers, and signed the infernal paperwork. Now, as with Stone, they have a bad case of buyer's remorse.  The question that will be answered tomorrow is whether those duped or complicit Americans (I'll let the reader decide which adjective is best)  have the decency to confess their sin and seek redemption. Will we have a nation of prodigal sons and daughters returning home to seek forgiveness? Or will we instead embrace the spirit of Shakespeare's Richard III, men and women "determined to prove a villain" and proud of it?

I make no prognostication about tomorrow's outcome.  Polls are, as the saying goes, indicative but not predictive.  What I do know is that I will be glued to the television and social media all day as, for hopelessly lost pundits of politics, this is our Super Bowl sans the steroids. (Zing!). 

The clock is ticking; the forces are squaring up on the battlefield. All that remains is the outcome. I hope for victory, but know that the opponent has a say in the outcome as well. Be that as it may, I am mindful of Margaret Thatcher's wisdom that "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” Tomorrow will be no different. In defeat, it will be a return to guerrilla warfare. In victory, we will not rest but form up yet again and march on, this time with a liberated White House as our destination.