Among the many blessings we Americans take for granted is that, with the exception of 9/11, we have not had a foreign incursion within our borders in living memory. Before that, if I am not mistaken, our closest brush with war on our territory was a few German infiltrators on the east coast and a hot-air balloon sent by the Japanese to the west coast during World War II. The rest of the world has been less fortunate in this regard. One of my childhood memories growing up in a third world country is of war with a neighboring country. Even though I never saw actual hostilities, I remember that our government issued a "blackout" order. What this meant was, citizens were ordered to douse their lights after dark to prevent enemy bombers from finding large civilian targets. This may sound laughable in our high tech era but this was the '60s in a third world country. The point is this was a measure that caused some degree of inconvenience to the public but was also something everybody could do in the common interest. I don't recall anyone refusing to follow this order on the grounds that it infringed upon their liberty; perhaps the prospect of death raining down from the skies gave us all some perspective. Fast forward to 2020 and the covid-19 pandemic. Although this is not an invasion by a foreign army, the devastation to our health and economy is greater than that caused by past wars. The number of deaths in Taiwan and New Zealand is 7 and 25 respectively. Meanwhile, 240,000 of our citizens are dead and the number of cases is greater than India's, with just a third of India's population. Well-known, universally accepted measures such as mask-wearing, hand-washing, social distancing, testing and contact tracing to try to contain the spread of the virus are called for. Yet in the US this has become an issue of personal liberty for half the population. Is this what passes for American exceptionalism now? I don't think so. What sets us apart is that we have a president who decided to use this pandemic as an opportunity to divide us in the hope that this would somehow help his re-election effort. And he might have succeeded if not for the fact that his approach proved to be disastrous and he managed to motivate more people to vote against him than for him. I like to think middle-of-the-roaders made a difference in this election. But it's not yet time to pat ourselves on the back and go home. The run-offs in Georgia for the remaining two senate seats are crucial to deciding how the next two years will go. If the behavior of senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell over the past 12 years is any indication, there will be little cooperation with and mostly obstruction to a Biden administration if they retain their majority. Democrats must turn out every possible vote to match or even surpass the effort in the general election. And they now know they can win in Georgia. Middle-of-the-roaders have a crucial role once again.
- drrama7