A Writer's Notebook, Day Seven-Hundred-And-Fifty-Nine

The past four years have been extremely harsh in the United States, and the divisions that exist in this nation have already been exposed and expanded by what has occurred.  There is already a dangerous fissure, and it is clear that it must be resolved if this nation is to move forward in any meaningful sense.  As I said last night, I am quite terrified of the current refusal by Republicans, particular those in office, to acknowledge that the election was properly conducted, and the narrative being developed is quite dangerous.  Consider the possibility of one of the two major parties in this country refusing to accept the President, refusing to acknowledge his authority and acting to undermine the faith of their constituency in the governmental process itself.  Their seems a real possibility that Biden might be sworn in without the Republicans as a whole ever truly conceding.  It is entirely possible that we will be hearing people call Biden the "fake President" and refusing to acknowledge him, in a way frightfully similar to the dismissal of documented facts as "fake news."  Republicans in government have acted in ways that make it clear they cannot be trusted at all, and now they are showing that they would rather destroy the most sacred traditions and institutions of our nation, foment a belief that the democratic process has failed amongst their supporters, and splinter the American citizenry even more than has already been accomplished.  One has to wonder if they are taking the words of their parties founder, Abraham Lincoln, that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" as instructions for destroying our democracy.

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