If those who make a living by declaring the outcome of elections are correct, we may not know the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election for days to come.
In 2020, it wasn’t until the Saturday after the election that the race was called in Joe Biden’s favor.
We do not know what the reaction will be once a winner has been declared this year, but no matter the results, millions of Americans will be bitterly disappointed while millions of other Americans will be euphoric.
As the results are worked out, what the candidates say and do will resonate with their supporters, either for the good or the bad.
There can be no better model for the kind of statesmanship that is required at such a time as that found in Abraham Lincoln’s two inaugural addresses, both of which, while acknowledging the bitter divisions, called on Americans to recognize their bonds as countrymen.
The idea that our nation has never been more polarized than it is today, pales in comparison to the fever pitch of 1860, when the election of Lincoln was followed in short order by the secession of Southern states and ultimately the Civil War, the deadliest conflict in our nation’s history.
It was against this backdrop that Lincoln modeled the kind of behavior that we find in the greatest of leaders.
In his first inaugural address, Lincoln did not celebrate his improbable ascension to the presidency, but focused attention on those for whom his election was considered tragic.
“We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln said. “We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Four years later, when the war had ended with a Union victory, his tone and focus remained as it had in his first inaugural address:
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
How much better the nation would have been if citizens, northern and southern alike, had embraced his words in those two inaugural addresses. A bitter war may have been averted by the first and an uneasy and unjust reconciliation avoided by the second.
History tells us that all of Lincoln’s eloquent wisdom could not accomplish the greatest outcome.
That task was up to the people themselves.
And so it is today in these first hours after the final votes have been cast and the counting continues.
It is, in the end, a matter of faith – faith in each other and faith in our system, both of which have served us well in our nation’s past.
Though polarized, we are not enemies. We are neighbors. We cheer for the same teams, enjoy the same hobbies. We watch the same TV shows. Eat at the same restaurants. We live in the same neighborhoods. Our children and grandchildren play with each other. We are not divided in the rhetorical terms a hotly contested political campaign creates: You are not a communist. Your neighbor is not a cultist.
We are Americans.
In victory, we should subdue our euphoria. In defeat, we should exercise grace in the face of disappointment. These are, after all, lessons we try to instill in our children. As adults, should we not hold ourselves to those same standards?
We must also avoid the temptation to blame an outcome we don’t like on corruption. Our voting system is the best the world has to offer. When we are quick to embrace such wild speculation, we weaken and dishonor our nation and embolden our enemies abroad.
As Lincoln encouraged us, instead let’s listen to the better angels of our nature.
That is an act of patriotism we can all perform.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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