EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 POPULARITY

One hears it often during this political season in America: “I don’t like either candidate.”

That’s all. No policy analysis. No review of historical records. No consideration of past actions. No prediction of future implications. No educated guess about what either candidate might do to hurt or help the people of America if elected.

Just, “I don’t like either candidate.”

The election of a president of the United States of America might be likened to a taste test of two sodas. 

Elections have more potential consequences.

Germany had an election in 1933. It’s very likely that a majority of Germans didn’t like any of the candidates involved. Perhaps many stayed home.

The Brownshirts didn’t.

In 1945, General Dwight David Eisenhower, head of the allied troops in Europe, forced the people of selected villages in Germany to march past the final result of the 1933 elections. The programs and intentions that brought about these results had been spelled out very clearly in a 1925 manifesto that sold over 12 million copies, including a braille edition for the blind.

People had known.

How many people in these sad lines do we imagine might have been thinking, “But I didn’t like either candidate?”