It dawned on me this morning, the 77,302,580 didn’t make a vote, they took an oath. It wasn’t like the oath I took to protect the United States and its Constitution. It was an oath to follow a single man, Donald J. Trump.
How do votes and oaths differ?
A vote is a formal indication of a choice between two or
more candidates or courses of action, expressed typically through a ballot or a
show of hands or by voice.
An oath is a public pledge that a person will perform
some action or duty, generally with the promise of doing so truthfully. An oath
can also be used as a way of promising oneself to support a cause or an entity.
It came to me while walking with my dog this morning. We
like to listen to audio books as we walk and this day’s fare was “The Last 100
Days” by John Toland, a detailed recounting of the end of WWII in Europe.
I was struck by the number of high-ranking German officers
who would not surrender in the face of overwhelming odds, a surrender that
would have save thousands of lives and avoided the destruction of many German cities.
As their armies collapsed, generals prolonged the carnage with, “I have taken
an oath to the Fuhrer never to surrender.”
I was struck by the fact that, even after Himmler told the
concentration camp guards to flee and save themselves, many chose, instead, to
march their prisoners until they died of fatigue or starvation.
I was struck by the thousands of suicides by those who
couldn’t live in a world without Hitler, and the horrific insanity of Josehp Goebbels
and his wife Magda who took their six precious children with them into death by
poisoning them.
Then while walking through a quiet city park, a cold thread
of abject terror ran down my spine.
This isn’t going to end well.
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