Back in February 2020, just before the Florida's Democratic presidential primary, I wrote the following:
I have plenty of opinions on just about any subject, and if you're reading my blog, you know I don't hesitate to make them known. However, I rarely like to discuss politics directly. I also believe strongly in the institution of the secret ballot. Sometimes I don't even tell myself whom I'm voting for until I actually put pen to ballot.
Situations change, and we change in response.
I published my first post to the Politics category in October 2004. Number 100 occurred in March of 2009 (4.5 years later), the count reached 200 in February 2016 (7 years), then 300 in November 2022 (6.5 years), and 400 in September 2024 (less than 2 years). It now stands at 414. Suddenly, I find that I have more political opinions, and more that I'm willing to share. And a lot more to say than I have time to write.
Back in 2018, my friend Eric Schultz wrote an article (unfortunately no longer available) that prompted me to think about a new kind of despair I'd been observing in the Western world. I wrestled with it and put off writing about it because it was a difficult topic and I didn't know how to begin. When I finally stumbled to a start at the beginning of November 2020, I didn't get far. (My Last Battle series currently has only 9 posts, and has somewhat been taken over by Here I Stand.) But the essay I was trying to write was quite different from the one I had planned to write two years earlier. This is part of what I said:
I have been increasingly concerned by the number of people who look around and are overcome by despair. Despair deep enough that they have determined to have no children, because "How could we bring a child into such a terrible world?" If suicide is the extreme expression of individual hopelessness, surely the rejection of reproduction is the same attitude on a cosmic scale.
Although they have this despondency in common, I find that people are coming to this point from many different places, and with many different fears. Climate change, the election of President Trump, an asteroid hitting the earth, terrorism, pandemic, widespread civil unrest, and the takeover of our world by Artificial Intelligence are only a few of the disasters that people believe are on the brink of ending the world as we know it—and any world worth living in. How should we live in such times? How dare we bring children into such a world?
I’ve long wanted to write an answer to these questions, to these fears. In 2018, however, it was composing my response from a position of strength. I saw these concerns as understandable, but not really rational; I certainly didn’t feel them myself to any great extent.
Situations change.
Sometime between the end of 2018 and the end of 2020 (n.b. before the presidential election), I became much less optimistic. Not because of any one particular event or fear, but from stepping back and taking a good look at what has been happening in our country (along with much of the West). I decided it was time to stop sticking my head in the sand about our social and political situation. In truth, I guess it was more a matter of being forced to pay attention, because in the past five or six years, America has gone very rapidly down an insane path, not just in one area, but many. Not that the seeds of the decline weren't sewn long ago; it's the rate of change in recent years that woke up this stewing frog.
It's much easier not to pay attention. And some of us are living such difficult lives that it's virtually impossible to spend the time necessary to seek out the truth about anything. That's one reason I like to pretend that I have decades of life left, that my Must Do list isn't already impossibly long, and that I can afford the time to investigate, and to write what I find. Because it's critically important.
Without going further here into the reasons why I have reached this conclusion—I have already written much, and will continue to write—all of my newfound awareness has led me to this:
- The 2024 presidential race is the most important election in which I have voted since I became eligible at the age of 19.
- For the first time ever, I am voting enthusiastically for my candidate (and maybe more surprisingly, sharing my intentions with the world). I have left behind "He's the lesser of two evils" and truly believe that only one presidential candidate, despite his obvious flaws, has a clue as to the imminent danger we are in, and a direction for swimming out of the rip current in which we are caught.
- I am truly impressed by the diverse selection of highly intelligent advisors and supporters who have realized the same thing and despite their differences have joined together to work with President Trump for causes that I value greatly. This is the first time ever that I have felt understood and represented by any politician. That is no small thing.
- Therefore, it is with a set jaw and a light in my eyes that on Monday I will cast my vote for Donald Trump and J. D. Vance.
- As you know, I much prefer to vote on the real Election Day at my local, physical polling place. But having experienced two hurricanes in less than two weeks, I realize that this election is too important to risk a possible disaster that would make voting on November 5 impossible. Taking advantage of Early Voting seems the prudent thing to do.
It is my deep desire that all who read this will also vote for Donald Trump. But I know better than to hope for that! More importantly, I want you to know that I am not trying to persuade you, and have no desire to argue. My job is to provide information, and tell the truth that investigation, experience, and the wisdom of age have revealed to me. Convincing you is beyond my pay grade.
I may be wrong, but "Here I stand; I can do no other."
Situations may change, but one thing has not. The answer to the questions I was struggling with in 2018 and 2020 (How should we live in such times? How dare we bring children into such a world?) remains the same: We dare to have children because they are the best resource we have for survival, as individuals and as the human race. Whatever the outcome of this election, whatever troubles come, whatever problems we face—it is our children who will meet the future. Who knows what great and unexpected inventions, discoveries, solutions, and ideas will come from their youthful optimism, energy, and strength? But they have to be born first. Our most important mission is to bring them into the world, bring them up right, and prepare them well.
