The following is not the official position of this newspaper, just the “closing argument” of one countryman:
Today is a good day for going-into-battle speeches, steeling ourselves and psyching up for the climax of this great culture war, “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure,” as Abraham Lincoln said on the Gettysburg battlefield in November of 1863. In November of 2024, we are met on the battleground of our latest civil war, so inspiration is the order of this final week before Election Day.
Take heart from Shakespeare’s famous pre-battle stemwinder, found in Henry V (adapted for this historic moment):
This story shall the good voters teach their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters; and today shall ne’er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remember’d; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters; for those today who stand against the darkness with me shall be my brother and sister; and those in America now a-bed in their enchanted sleep shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their personhoods cheap when anyone speaks who voted with us upon this fateful Election Day.
Some have surrendered to the irrational Darkness, supporting a morally debased and mentally incompetent candidate — or enabling that candidate by voting for a third party, or not voting at all. Those who embrace the Light, meanwhile, defending what is rational, honorable and true, see the stakes in this election all too clearly. The future of our country, the future of democracy and the future of the world are at stake. We are in a race against the clock with accelerating climate change. If the climate-deniers triumph and shift this country into reverse for four more years (at least), the world our children and grandchildren inherit will rapidly become un-livable.
Hyperbole? Mere rhetoric? Don’t kid yourselves. Our future course as a nation will be determined if the vote goes the wrong way next week and America goes into a nosedive. We’re already running out of time. If you don’t vote for the only candidate who can defeat Trump, or don’t vote at all, you are effectively voting for the forces of Darkness, and Trump thanks you.
The candidate of Darkness is anti-democratic, anti-rule of law, a person of criminal character, a traitor to his country, who would harm our country even more than he did the first time around. The candidate of Light is pro-democracy, pro-rights and respects the rule of law. She is the only person who can triumph over Trump, the only one standing between us and fascism.
Three weeks ago, my twin grandsons turned 11. My granddaughter turns 2 the day before the election. Tyler and Bryce are 10 years from adulthood. Charlotte is 20 years away. Their future will be either dark or hopeful, depending on whether Americans have the good sense to vote for Kamala Harris.
My grandsons understand this election better than half the adults in this country. For the past couple of years we have been reading the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books. Both depict the running battle between the forces of Light and Darkness. Both feature Dark Lords who were previously defeated but have regrouped and regained enough strength to threaten the established order.
The ongoing battle between Light and Darkness is at the core of our mythology and cosmology. It is hard-wired in our psyches. We have spent our entire lives watching it re-enacted in films, on TV, on stage: Sauron (the Dark Lord of Mordor, Lord of the Rings), Darth Vader (Star Wars), Voldemort (Harry Potter), and Kronos (Percy Jackson). And in our history books, Hitler, Putin, and now Trump (a self-described Fuhrer). In fiction and non-fiction, the plot is similar: the Dark Lord’s rebound endangers all that is good, and all that could be even better. The forces of Light are unnerved and uncertain, but they are not disabled by their fear. In the end, they remember who they are and what they stand for and rise to resist.
Now we find ourselves on the eve of this recurring battle’s latest incarnation — not in our imaginations but in the real world. History will judge us on whether we meet this challenge. So will our children and grandchildren. At the moment, it looks like a 50-50 proposition — scary, befitting the darkening, ghoulish decor surrounding us this season. Will government of the people, by the people, for the people perish from the earth? Will we allow an authoritarian regime to take its place, through our indifference or blind self-righteousness?
From the courts to the media, the guardrails of our system have revealed disturbing weaknesses. They will fail altogether if Trump gets a second term. It is entirely up to us, the voters, to prevent that collapse. This is our moment — unavoidable, though some are taking refuge in their bunkers of fear and despair, claiming a false equivalency between the Dark and Light sides, carving out a phony neutrality, hoping both sides lose so they can emerge from their bomb shelters in the pure sunlight of a new day with their virtue intact. But as Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel insightfully observed, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
We need you. We ask every one of you to stand with us. We also ask anyone who leans Republican in “normal” times to vote with us in this decidedly abnormal time. We don’t need Joseph Campbell’s mythical “Hero of a Thousand Faces” to rescue us. We need 90 million heroic voters — to save democracy and give our descendants a shot at a brighter future.
What we don’t need are quibblers, equivocators and third-party dreams. Maybe next election, not this time.
But with you or without you, we are making our stand — we band of sisters and brothers — and if enough of us vote, we will win, not by force, cynicism and despair, but with hope, love and united ballots. We must go into this final week as “warriors,” not “worriers”: disciplined, determined, optimistic, focused on winning.
Which is why we need a spine-tingling, going-into-battle speech to rouse and inspire us. My favorite is delivered by Aragorn in the film Return of the King (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) outside the Black Gate of Mordor before the final battle (modified for this historic moment):
Sons and daughters of Blue States! Of Red States! My brothers and sisters, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart out of me. A day may come when the courage of men and women fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, an hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Rationality comes crashing down. But today is not that day! Today we vote for the Light, for a better country and a brighter future. By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, men and women of America! The day may come when democracy will die, when we succumb to fear and darkness. But today is not that day!
We will be remembered for remaining true to the Light. Let’s bury Trump in votes for Harris — then forgive his supporters, and his enablers, and find our way, together, to a better future.
Or as Ulysses says, exhorting his crew before setting out on one more voyage (with apologies to Tennyson): ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. … One equal temper of heroic hearts / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will / To strive, to seek, to vote, and not to yield.