Thoughts And Prayers

Hats off to our postal workers, police officers and other local public officials. These front-line patriots got us through the initial hell of the pandemic.

Another doff of the cap in advance, because we are about to ask them — joined by poll workers — to administer and safeguard our most fundamental right: the vote.

God help them, and God help us all, because it looks like it’s going to be a hellacious job.

Why? Well, because elections are taking place while: we’re in the middle of a pandemic and its ensuant economic recession; the nation’s undergoing a racial reckoning; our vote is under foreign attack; social media has gone wacko with disinformation; the Supreme Court is a battleground; and now our president is hospitalized by a virus he once called a hoax and is going on drive-abouts while apparently contagious.

Beyond that, our president has put into question his willingness to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. He is calling on an “army” of legally dubious poll watchers to aid him. He’s delegitimizing our electoral system by alleging the potential for massive voter fraud, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The whole thing is enough to drive you nutzo, especially if you’re trying to follow the advice of developing a voting plan due to COVID-19.

After a lot of pondering, I’ve decided to vote in person, early, because I want to balance the possibility of infection against the nightmare scenarios gamed out by pundits. You know, like the one that has President Trump, Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi all showing up on January 20, each with a Bible in hand and a legitimate claim to be sworn in as president. Shove that into your pocket Constitution and try to sleep on it.

Then there’s the challenge being presented to law enforcement by this stirred-up election frenzy. In normal times, they get to ride out the elections and, in fact, by law aren’t generally supposed to interfere. But these aren’t normal times. The president has said he is going to have “sheriffs” “U.S. attorneys,” “everybody and attorney generals” watching the polls. Many law enforcement agencies have preemptively said, no thanks.

Already we’ve seen instances smacking of illegal voter intimidation, such as super-charged Trump ralliers making an unexpected stop at a Virginia early voting polling station, aggressively chanting, “Four more years!” which led to enough voters feeling intimidated that officials changed the poll entrance.

Well, that’s Virginia, and it could never happen here on the East End, right? I’m not so sure.

In the last couple of months, we’ve had massive and boisterous “Trumpstock” flotillas. There was the “MAGA-gras” on the North Fork, with reportedly over 1,500 vehicles festooned with Trump paraphernalia. From Hampton Bays to Montauk, yards boast ginormous Trump billboards, flags and even Rambo-esque dioramas.

Hurrah for a robust exercise of the First Amendment!

But before we cheer freedom of expression too heartily, let’s consider the consequences.

I’ve already heard from friends, proud, American flag-waving patriots whose fathers, like mine, bled for our country, but who are feeling intimidated. They’re cautious about putting out Biden yard signs for fear of retaliatory vandalism.

Whether or not the concern is valid, it exists, and its chilling effect has to be recognized. And if these ostentatious displays of Trumpism are meant to provoke, they have, with reports of vandalism against them.

As a person of color, I can smell intimidation a mile away. And I’m telling you now, something is really, really up when even the white folk are getting scared and picking on each other.

Another friend is fearful that a muddled election result could lead to violence, even here on the East End. That’s far-fetched, I try to reassure.

But the fear and mistrust are there and hard to root out when our president’s son calls for “every able-bodied man and women” to join his dad’s “army” of poll watchers. Or when the president refuses to condemn armed white supremacists and instead says they should “stand back and stand by.”

We’re blessed here on the East End to have fairly enlightened law enforcement. They are professionals who will likely resist any calls to intervene based on partisanship rather than public safety.

But while facing resources already stretched by the pandemic, why should they have to be put on alert, when I doubt this has been the case in any past elections?

Why should our poll and postal workers have to be subjected to the stress of being converted into our new front-line patriots in this current pandemic of erosion of confidence in our electoral system?

We’re Americans, dammit — we deserve our democracy to run as it’s meant to, not like some authoritarian backwater. We are not a “shithole” country.

The saddest part is that we’re seeing a rupture in our community. People of goodwill, who have supported one another through difficult times, like Sandy, are now avoiding one another by crossing streets, dodging aisles at the IGA, or shopping in another hamlet altogether.

Regardless of the outcome on November 3 (or sometime thereafter), a lot of damage has already been done to the fabric of our community. We’re going to need mending.

My hopes and prayers are that, in true spirit of America, enough of us will choose patriotism over partisanship and pull together to fix this split.