NOVEMBER 9, 2020 – Whenever I was with my dad up at the cabin on a warm day in late autumn, he’d mention the “Armistice Day Blizzard” (now, “Veterans Day”) of 1940. The day before had been unseasonably warm, pleasant, filled with sunshine. It was duck-hunting season and many hunters had blithely taken the day off work to take advantage of the unusually fine weather. The storm of the century then struck across the Upper Midwest. Temperatures plummeted, and in some areas, over 27 inches of snow fell. Many of those duck hunters perished, trapped by the elements.
Yesterday was beautifully warm and sunny in this same neck of the woods where Dad and I would walk together in such weather late in the season. But yesterday afternoon I began checking warily the forecast. Soon the weather will turn cold, then fill with rain turning to snow. Full-scale winter is not far away.
I worry that the weather forecast might parallel the political front. Two days ago, my wife and I celebrated up here in the Northwoods, deep in Trump territory. In spirit we joined the celebratory demonstrations in the nation’s blue cities, talked by phone with distant elated friends, and around an early evening campfire, popped open the champagne with two friends from down the way.
But yesterday, as I walked through the woods with unusually warm air blowing from the south, I worried about politics as much as I braced myself for inclement weather.
This morning I woke to reports of gathering momentum within Trump’s orbit to defy and deny the legitimacy of Biden’s election; rumors that Kushner, who allegedly had initially “counseled” (I can’t quite picture the kid “counseling”) Trump to step down and slink away, was now urging him to do just the opposite and hold a bunch of rallies. I attributed this apparent change of direction as a catch-up reaction to the bully sons’ push to fight the election results. Ditto Trophy Wife—first in favor of stepping down; now a full-fledged member of the “Fraud!” team.
Then there’s the hogwash dispensed by Trump’s leading Congressional sycophants, Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy, who’ve proved themselves unfit for high office, or much of any office requiring a fundamental understanding of democratic principles.
After celebrating in the warm sunshine, are we now in for an “Armistice Day Blizzard”—but without an “armistice”?
I worry that our expressions of relief might have been premature. I worry that the 70 million voters drunk on four years of Kool-Aid are all too willing to slurp from the same toxic trough. I worry that the beautifully warm weather will yield all too fast to wind-driven sleet and snow and freezing temperatures.
A patriotic American can disagree with the legislative records and policy statements of Biden and Harris, but the patriot can’t argue with the truism oft-repeated in the Democrats’ campaign: character matters. In the days ahead we’ll see whether character prevails. If it doesn’t, we’re all in for a very long, harsh winter.
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
