I've been struggling to put into words what I feel about what just happened with this national election. The campaign was ugly. It was a dirty, ugly, all-out fight.... the worst in memory, and politics was bad enough to begin with. It brought out the absolute worst in both major-party candidates, and for that reason, I struggled HARD with a decision on who to vote for. Not between the two of THEM... that wasn't the hard decision. I knew that I could never support a continuation of the relativistic, anti-life, world-on-it's head, group think that we've had for the past eight years. So, I knew undeniably that I couldn't vote for HER. But could I vote for HIM? The arrogant, brash, big-mouthed, piggish, self-serving, gold-plated HIM? Did he represent ME and MY VALUES in any form whatsoever??? It certainly didn't seem so. So, for much of the campaign, I fretted and stewed, and felt like a truly "disenfranchised voter" with nowhere to go, and no one representing decent, common-sense (is there such a thing any more?) Christian values. Others around me assured me he was the guy - just the guy to stoop to the gutter where the fight takes place, to be victorious. But I didn't just want victorious. I wanted HOPE. I wanted a return to all that is good about America. I wanted someone who would remember that we used to find these truths self-evident: that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among those life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So I struggled, and argued with my husband (whose mind was made up decisively and early), and fretted, and prayed for a last minute knight on a white horse to prance in and give me SOMEONE I could vote for with a clear conscious. It was evident, though, that anyone who was qualified for the job, didn't want the job. I certainly couldn't blame them. The job of President of the United States is vicious. It sucks. I wouldn't want it. And there were other considerations to take into account. When Justice Scalia died, and a Supreme Court vacancy was suddenly on the table, the election's ramifications became even starker. Stakes were HIGH... not just for four years of one presidency or another, but for the lives of my children well into the future.
And then Evan McMullin appeared out of nowhere (well, Utah... same thing). I heard him first on the radio, and he was saying everything I wanted to hear. He understood ME, he represented MY values. More than any candidate in recent memory, he was reflecting my hopes for this country. And he was stepping forward out of a sense of service, not entitlement, because he loves America and wants the best for it. And I thought "YES! Here's my guy!" Knowing that my vote doesn't matter in this heavily blue state anyway, I might as well vote for someone I actually AGREE with, even if his chances of winning were nil. Plus, every poll, every pundit, every newspaper article, every newscast, told me that this election was in the bag for HER. 99% certain, anyway. It was a done deal, the election was a formality. It was her turn. She'd done all the required steps, and now she got to be the first woman president, because it's all about gender and breaking a glass ceiling, and WINNING for HER. Puke.
But then, I got to thinking. If Evan McMullin took Utah... that's a red state. OK. Sacrifice those red votes and turn them independent, but that's still minus for the red column, and if anyone was to stop the other two schmucks from winning 270 electoral votes, we really needed to take some votes from a blue column. We needed a blue state to turn red. And right before the election, my solidly blue state started turning... purple. For the first time in a generation. Well, maybe light blue, according to the polls. But not dark blue, like it always had been. Which meant... I had to play defense, if I wanted my guy to have a chance (he didn't. But theoretically). I had to plug my nose, and vote for the big-mouth, and take one for the team, because my part in the strategy was defense. Decision, one week before the election, was finally made.
The day of the election, I told my children it was "my day of despair" because I believed what I was told, and that we were about to be subjected to four more years of the debacle of Obama-care, gender-identity crisis, the wholesale slaughter of the unborn, unsecure borders, and the relativism of a nation who had lost its moral compass utterly. We'd lost before we'd even begun. Everyone said so. Those people who remembered a time when there was such thing as a right and a wrong... they were gone. We Christians are out of touch, out of date, backwards. We are bigots, homophobes, racists, xenophobic paternalistic misogynists. They all said so. All the loud people in the media, all the loud people on Facebook. All those emails leaked from HER campaign. All the shouting people everywhere. They believe that of us. They really do. Despair.
And then.... the unthinkable, the unbelievable happened. The 99% certainty didn't happen. It DIDN'T HAPPEN. Not by a decisive long shot! Definitively! As state after state turned red on the electoral map on November 8th, I was stunned. Are you serious???? Really really??? I stayed up as late as I could muster, watching the news, and by early morning it was official. HE had won. Not HER. HIM. The big-mouth. I hadn't wanted him, even though he got my vote. The educated woman who everyone said would never vote for the likes of HIM had voted for HIM, and apparently, so had a lot of other people. A LOT of quiet people, who nobody knew were out there. So, what was I supposed to feel now?
I'll be honest. You know what I feel? RELIEF. R.E.L.I.E.F. The certainty of what another four blue years would have held has been dispelled, and that is a fantastic thing. FANTASTIC. And, even though I am really nervous about the future of this country, I feel like we have a chance now to regain our senses. If for no other reason than that Supreme Court vacancy, this was a victory for America. We have a chance.
And now we pray. We pray for HIM, that he would learn humility and wisdom, and surround himself with the best and brightest that our country has to offer. That HE takes on this responsibility with a sense of service and love of God and country. We pray for the 50% of this nation that is scared to death, because they believe the lies about the other half of us... that we are racist, xenophobe, misogynist bigots. We are NOT. And our vote for HIM doesn't make us so. Not by a long shot. And we are dang tired of being labeled as such, just because we have beliefs and values that are as long as the history of the human race, and have not just evolved over the past 30 years like theirs. We pray for healing, and repentance. We pray for a return to common sense, a return to faith, a return to justice.
We pray for America. We've got a lot of work to do.
