Will Election 2020 End The Troubles?

Remember “the troubles” in Northern Ireland that went on for about forty years ?  We visited Belfast soon after the peace agreement was signed in 1998, but there was still plenty of tension .  In fact, as our tour bus entered the city, armed militia stopped us, and walked through the bus, checking for whatever?  Maybe to see if anyone had a gun?  Clearly the peace agreement between, British Loyalists and Irish Nationalists  hadn’t ended the troubles.  Will the 2020 election end the troubles in the USA?

People in America were lined up for hours on the first day of early voting yesterday.   Early voters are not undecided. Those who were  interviewed expressed strong feelings for their  candidate of choice..  While I applaud all the interest in voting, it makes you wonder what will happen,  no matter who wins.

If Trump wins, will women stop having abortions or go underground? Will the Black Lives Matter movement grow stronger?   Will rioting and protesting escalate out of control?

Will troubles end on election day?Or will they escalate no matter who wins.
Will Election 2020 End Troubles for America? It seems likely that it won’t.

If Biden wins, will Trump supporters  turn in their guns?  Will they  welcome immigrants flooding into  the country receiving free medical care? Will they meekly agree to another lockdown and shut down their businesses?  If none of the above, look for trouble.

There was another contentious election day back in 1960. A lot of people opposed  having a Catholic president, but he won, anyway.  The troubles didn’t end when John F. Kennedy was elected, then assassinated two years later.  In fact, what followed was an escalation of our involvement  in Vietnam– the longest war in American History.

Both Biden and Trump say they want to unite the country. That seems like wishful thinking. America’s troubles will not end on election day.

THE SINNER VS.THE SAINT

Soon, we’re going to have Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris questioning Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett as to whether or not she’s fit to be confirmed as a supreme court judge.   It’s going to be like a scene from the Wizard of Oz:   Sweet  Dorothy from Kansas pitted against the Wicked Witch of the West.  Get ready for a case of the sinner vs. the  saint,  

Amy Coney  Barrett is  mother of seven children–including two adopted black children, and  one  child with Downs Syndrome.  She’s been married to the same man for eighteen  years.  In contrast, when former San Francisco prosecutor Kamala Harris was twenty nine, she  hooked up with an influential  married man thirty  years her senior who helped her get ahead in politics.   Recently married, she has no children, only step children.

This is what then Democratic presidential candidate, Rep  Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii,  had to say about  Kamala Harris. :

As attorney general of California, “She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations, and then laughed about it when she was asked if she’d ever smoked marijuana. She blocked evidence that would have freed a man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California. And she fought to keep cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way.”

Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett was voted most popular professor on three different occasions at the University of Notre Dame.  During her confirmation hearing in March of 2017,  a group of 450 former students signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, telling senators that their support was “driven not by politics, but by the belief that Professor Barrett is supremely qualified.” She also she had the unanimous support of her 49 Notre Dame colleagues, who wrote that they had a “wide range of political views” but were “united however in our judgment about Amy.”

The contrast between the two women couldn’t be more stark.  Kamala sashays around in a form fitting pants suit, while Amy  is seen holding a small child’s hand,  walking to the podium in a modest dress.
the saint vs the sinner: Barret vs. Harris
The saint vs. the sinner. There is  going to be a showdown between two very different women.

I have a  problem with Amy Barrett’s stance on abortion,  but it’s not a deal breaker.  This week in my city,   a beautiful, seven year old   boy was  murdered by his father with a  belt.  No unwanted child should be brought into this world, only to be tortured and killed.  This is why I am pro choice.  And I don’t think Roe vs. Wade will ever be repealed.

Nevertheless, we’ll soon have a ringside seat to an interaction between two very different women.. It will be interesting to see who prevails. The saint or the sinner?.