OPINION:
It’s OK now to turn off the television, toss yesterday’s newspaper into the trash, stop obsessing over the changes in the polls from the battleground states and give your blood pressure a rest. Leave further obsession to the committed junkies who probably voted early to study the entrails of the squirrels smashed into the street and prepare to do what good citizens who love the country and care about the future of their grandchildren have always done about what ails the body politic. All that’s left then is to go to the polls on Tuesday morning for what’s left of an Election Day all but overshadowed by early voting, and vote like the future depends on it.
Because it really does. The Constitution, the rule of law, America’s role in the world and the future of the American economy, on which nearly everything else depends, hinge on what happens when America votes. The polls and the pundits have been interesting, sometimes frightening and maybe even misleading, but only the voters have the power and responsibility to hire and fire presidents.
A lot of people won’t vote Tuesday, and that’s their constitutional right. But qualified voters who stay home have only a discounted right to complain about the outcome. As usual, the outcome will stand in doubt when the first voters line up to cast their ballots. If tradition holds, the handful of qualified voters in Dixville Notch, N.H., population 12, will vote shortly after midnight and when all 10 registered voters have cast their ballots, go home to wait with the rest of us for the counting to begin.
Despite the polls, the educated hunches and the betting odds, no one really knows whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will win. The race looks particularly close, reflecting the precise division of the country into states the newspaper artists paint red, blue and purple. The outcome won’t depend on astrological signs, Donald Trump’s flyaway hair, and probably not even the weather or the cut and color of Hillary Clinton’s latest pantsuit. (But if she wins we hope she’ll buy a dress for the inauguration.)
The outcome will depend instead on the judgment of millions of Americans who collectively have the power to hire and fire their leaders. A presidential campaign is one long job interview and Election Day, together with all the little election days in states with early voting, is Hiring and Firing Day. The bottom line is plain: Election Day is not Hillary Day or Donald Day, but the one day when the American people have a chance to choose between two candidates, two parties and two different visions of the future.
So consider carefully, hold your nose if necessary, and hold out the brass ring and watch one of them snatch it away, and send the other to well-deserved oblivion. Voters can then take a rest. They deserve it, and never more than this year.
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