By Jim Heffernan
I’ve been thinking a lot about the election coming up in less than three weeks. Too much! I’ve watched a lot of elections go by, but this one has an ugliness to it that truly frightens me.
We have a national motto we put on our coins, “E Pluribus Unum”, (Latin for “out of many, one”). It’s a concept that has nurtured this country since it’s founding. Americans have come here from every corner of the globe and, until now, we’ve always managed to be a unified and harmonious nation.
What held us together was a commonly accepted set of facts. Forces I do not comprehend have destroyed this. You can say anything, and some corner of our media will support you. Now we separate into our comfortable corners of media and mistake our comfort zones for truth.
I have my own comfort zones for truth. They really haven’t changed much in my life. I still believe in the New York Times, Scientific American, National Geographic, Harper’s and the Atlantic. I’m sure some will condemn them for a “liberal” bias. I find that most of what I read survives the scrutiny of logic.
The other side says that we are menaced by immigration and we need to deport 8-10 million to preserve our country. This is an ugly sentiment that goes directly against our heritage of “E Pluribus Unum”.
Worse, it does not make sense logically. It’s been a long time since our birthrate has been above replacement level. We recovered from Covid much better than any other developed country because we’ve had immigration to keep our population from declining. Everywhere I look I see labor shortages. How much worse will it be if we suddenly deport millions?
I could go on, but I find it depressing. Kamala’s ideas survive my test of logic. Trump empty promises (remember the wall Mexico was going to pay for and how Covid would just go away) do not.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com