Election 2020 and Michael Beschloss

I'm disenchanted by the fact that I'm less than one month too young to vote in the 2020 election. In fact, I am precisely 28 days too young; the election happens just four weeks before my 18th birthday. 

Last night, Andover invited Michael Beschloss '73 to talk about the importance of the imminent November 3rd date. Beschloss is an American historian who specializes in the US Presidency. I attended his talk over Zoom on Friday night, which inspired me a new understanding of the importance of this election from a historical aspect.  

Beschloss's talk resonated most when he dissected the outlooks of the first few presidents of the United States, namely George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and compared them to the current administration. I soaked in Beschloss's words because they reminded me of what I'd learned in my US history course last year about the founding of this country. He spoke to how George Washington's humbleness and refusal to serve a third term as the first President of the United States set a precedent for future leaders of this country. And from a historical sense, this makes sense: the two term limit wasn't amended until after FDR's third term in the late 1940s post WWII. Beschloss also mentioned how Washington and Jefferson refused to take third terms because they believed the United States President was honor-bound not too take too much power. Jefferson didn't even dress up for his inaugural day; he dressed as an ordinary citizen because he believed the role of the President was not to be monarchical. 

This part lingered with me greatly, because what this country has witnessed in the past year would put Jefferson and Washington to tears. The democracy of this country, the ability to have our voices heard through voting, is at risk. This democracy that hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for throughout the entire history of this country, that was actually the catalyst for the very founding of this country, is all at risk because we have a president who is trying to hinder our voices from being heard. 

When the President of the United States quotes the Soviet Union, snuggles up to our enemies while affronting our allies, and harbors pertinent information from the American people, I cannot help but believe this person is trying to become a dicator, not the President of a freedom-loving, democratic society that Washington and Jefferson embodied and envisioned. Our current President honors none of the values upon which this country was founded and neglects the history of this nation. Nevertheless, he advertently spreads blasphemous lies in an attempt to deceive the American people with false information. 

While I write this post today, I must be frank in that I did not always feel as strongly about voting this man out of office. His treatment of women, transactions with foreign leaders, and the image he projected of America always bothered me. Yet as an Independent, and an independent thinker, I gave him a chance. The economy was doing well before the pandemic. Unemployment rates were at a 50 year low, the mean household income had risen to over $68,000, and the market was performing well. Nevertheless, my views have shifted dramatically this year when a series of behaviors and actions undertaken by the President negated his performance beyond the returns of a strong economy. While I surely do not agree with everything the Dems propose, I adamantly stand by the fact that we need a change in leadership. We need to reinstill basic human decency.