The first Tuesday of November has come and gone. The 2020 election is over – though many races will take days, if not weeks, to conclude and certify. The country can collectively exhale. An exhausted and exasperated nation woke up today to… Wednesday morning. As critical as the first Tuesday of November is, America is always driven forward by the first Wednesday of November.
The drive to the first Tuesday of November — with its focus on power and control, winners and losers — distracts us from more important conversation and more pressing problems in America. Both sides of the political aisle have breathlessly declared that if their enemies in the other party win the election and assume control, Armageddon will ensue, grandma will be pushed off the cliff and our children will be doomed to destruction. That has never proven to be the case in America. It is time for Wednesday.
For the past two election cycles I have attempted to draw attention to the first Wednesday of November – knowing that the answers to what ails the nation are not to be found in Washington but in our homes and neighborhoods. This morning citizens in towns and cities across the country are going to work, providing for loved ones, starting businesses, getting children to school, helping a neighbor in need, volunteering in their community, reaching out to struggling friends and engaging in the very free market economy and institutions of civil society that have driven American freedom for over two centuries.
It is as though the politically-obsessed have lost their knowledge of history. The country has survived fierce division and hotly contested elections in the past. And despite the noisy and negative chatter and clamor of flailing political consultants and media experts – Wednesday morning always comes – and the country moves on.
In fact, American history is filled with “Wednesday mornings.” Following great wars, social strife, scandals at the highest levels of government, 9-11, riots, mass-shootings and contested elections – Wednesday morning has always come – and it comes because the American people make it come with a belief in better days.
Despite the constant drumbeat bemoaning a deeply divided and angry America, I remain convinced that the American people are starving for elevated dialogue, searching for inspiring ideas and striving to find hope in heroes worthy of emulation. As always, a look back in history provides a clear vision of what is needed for a 2020 version of “Wednesday morning.”
Thomas Jefferson was a compelling and complex, inspired and flawed human – as all of us are. He was a slave owner and he also provided words and leadership that compelled Americans toward building bridges of unity, harmony and opportunity. His first inaugural address is instructive in our divisive and turmoil-ridden time.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Boyd Matheson
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