Just… No.

From November 7, 2020:

There’s a hundred-year-old photograph of my Grandma on the wall of my living room. She’s smiling, clad in a long white dress and sitting on a hillside in her native Pennsylvania. Although this photo is undated, I estimate that she was about eighteen to twenty years of age. Since Grandma was born in 1898, she reached the age of 21 before it was legal for an American woman to vote in an election. I loved her dearly, and the experience she had of being an adult citizen who could not cast a ballot makes the Nineteenth Amendment more personal for me to relate to.

“Times have changed” so much. I can remember when we were in Ohio visiting her, and Lyndon Johnson was speaking on Grandma’s black-&-white living room television. As a kid might do, I was talking and interfering with the adults’ ability to hear LBJ’s speech. Grandma kindly asked me to hush. “That’s our President,” she informed me. I learned that it was important for me to respect him… even though my Dad had a strong disapproval of any & all Democrats.

Fast forward to 2020… and our Election Debacle. Not even to mention the usual mud-slinging and arguments and the typical drama that goes on with Presidential campaigns… but our country has been stressed from these strung-out 4 or 5 days of waiting for election results. They’ve been tallying ballots, there’s controversy about the poll processes, and general anxiety.

As one who professes to be a Christian, I know that my Commander-in-Chief is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8.) God is always going to have the final say over what happens on Earth.

I can look at the many, many kings in the Old Testament and recognize that many of these rulers were evil in their actions. Besides, look at the years that Israel wandered in the desert — and the years that they were exiled in the foreign culture of Babylon. Times of bad or evil leadership have recurred all throughout history, you know. Exiles, coups, sieges, invasions… over & over we see them. (But I digress.)

You see, humans have experienced trials with their government innumerable times — so that’s nothing new. However, as I see it, we are generally becoming more and more disrespectful of the Presidency. And the past 4 years have been an undignified ridiculous circus. So many negative examples to avoid in the future.

This afternoon (written Nov.7th) they finally declared Biden to be the victor. Overall, my friends and acquaintances and I have breathed a massive collective sigh of relief and gratitude. I’ve been thankful on so many levels for that news. The USA has been traumatized SO much over the events of 2020… and the prospect of 4 more years of an immature, selfish, unwise, racist, mysogynistic, scornful, rude, crude, narcissistic person leading the country? He has refused to listen to the advice of scientific experts, denounced our sacrificial military veterans by publicly referring to them as “losers,” and made fun of Christians — while instigating division and perpetuating social injustice and racism, instead of working to address these problems and using his power for the good.

Mercy on our country. We need help.

No President is going to solve everything — Jesus is my Lord and Savior and men aren’t going to step into that savior role — but can we please have a President who puts the country’s interests ahead of his/her own ego? And is a functioning adult?

So, I saw a news item that the dude was out playing golf when the election was decided in Biden’s favor (Nov.7th). And as his motorcade returned to the White House from the Northern Virginia golf course, people lined the streets & overpasses holding banners, flags, and signs. Some of the people expressed their opinions with crude gestures as his car passed by. Overall, the atmosphere was “Good Riddance” and disrespect.

Now, I’m as relieved as anyone else by the election results. When casting my ballot earlier in October, I viewed my choice as “voting for someone that I’m not super excited about, but most definitely voting against 4 more years of this guy.”

I think it’s unfortunate that we have seen such a degradation of the office of President. In the hundred years since my beloved Grandmother gained her suffrage, we’ve seen more and more openly-rude and disrespectful behavior toward Presidents (and plenty of examples of their blatant disregard for the Constitution that they swore to protect. Watergate, impeachments, and lies.) I can only hope and pray that, as our political trauma begins a healing process, we might see an increase in mutual respect between the new leaders and our American people. Can they use their power for good? Will they? It remains to be seen.