Disunited states

Tuesday's elections will bring a resolution, but they may also divide us further

Tuesday is my birthday, and I’m concerned.

Not about turning 62. Age is just a number, time is unstoppable and I’m fortunate enough that I can still do most things I want to do (though maybe not as well as before).

And like everyone, I will be glad to get a break from the deluge of political ads and immediately move on to being swamped by holiday commercials.

No, I worry about the aftermath of Tuesday’s elections, regardless of how they turn out.

Like almost everyone, I have my preferences. I also respect others’ rights to their own, even if we disagree.

It's when people refuse to accept facts that we get into trouble, and the next week or so figures to be one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s two-and-a-half-century history.

A couple of disclosures:

• I have no political affiliation, and I have voted for candidates from both major parties in major elections, though not so often recently. I know there’s no such thing as a perfect candidate, and I believe no one has a monopoly on good ideas.

• And since until recently I was a professional journalist, I took pains not to take sides in print or online. Even a flippant partisan reference in a sports column sometimes triggers a serious backlash. But I’m now an involuntary free agent.

Having said that, I struggle to fathom why the presidential race is even close, and I cringe to think about what will happen whenever the winner is declared. I fear it will involve bloodshed, loss of life and serious damage to our fragile democracy.

Four years ago, we saw what happened when one side — or more accurately, one man — refused to accept the results of a free and fair election. That man, Donald Trump, has spent the intervening time laying the groundwork to do exactly the same (if not more) this time.

As you’ve no doubt surmised, I can’t stomach Trump, for all the reasons you’ve heard. He’s the least fit candidate for major office I’ve ever seen, and he’s spent the past decade poisoning his party and the country with his corruption and narcissism.

Now that his personal freedom may depend on getting back to the White House, he’s strongly hinted that he’ll go even further in trying to overturn this year’s results if he loses again. And again, there seem to be plenty of people willing and determined to follow his lead.

And if he wins? Well, there’s already been one apparent attempt on his life and another arrest of an armed man on his Mar-A-Lago property.

T.S. Eliot called April the cruelest month, but November could be the most violent, since roughly half of the nation figures to be upset with the result of what both sides have called the most important election of our lifetimes.

No matter what happens, Tuesday’s elections — not only for the presidency, but for control of the Senate, House of Representatives and countless state and local offices —won’t resolve this nation’s bitter divide. They may only widen it, much to the delight of our global rivals and to the consternation of our allies who look to the U.S. for leadership.

We’ll have a short-term resolution, but the acrimony won’t end before we find a way to resolve our differences. Major legislation will likely ensue on hot-button issues like abortion, taxes, LBGTQ+ rights and the makeup of the Supreme Court. So much money and passion have been poured into this campaign that the losers may not be able to simply shrug it off and plan for the next one.

I truly hope I’m wrong about the fallout. (I have been wrong a lot in predicting the outcome of sports events, and readily admit that.) I would love to see a peaceful transfer of power on January 20 without a single incident. But I know that’s unlikely.

I also know that politics can end friendships, which is why I usually avoid political discussions. If this essay costs me friends, I will be saddened. But I’d rather lose a friend than a democracy.

It’s been said that historically, most empires don’t last more than 2 1/2 centuries. The U.S.’s 250th anniversary arrives in 2026, although you could argue that we have ranked as a superpower only since the end of World War I, barely a century ago.

Still, chaos or constitutional challenges could undermine our position as a global leader. That’s why I am concerned every bit as much about the aftermath of this year’s election than the results themselves.

We’ll never truly be the United States of America, but we need to be able to agree to disagree and to compromise, which has become a dirty word.