I recently read an article in the New York Times by Michael Wines that talked about the long lines that voters waited in while trying to vote in the presidential election this year. That same article also talked about voter ID requirements that have been put into place since the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the John Roberts led Supreme Court and how although many of those ID requirements were struck down by various courts around the country, some states disregarded the rulings and applied them anyway. It went on to say that even in those states that in good faith tried to abide by the courts’ rulings, they experienced so much confusion during the election that many of the officials at polling places applied these outlawed standards anyway.

It further said that there were long lines due to the purposely limited number of polling places and problems with voting machines. The frustration that resulted from these new voter ID requirements caused many people to just stay at home and not vote and for those who did venture out to vote, all of the previously mentioned problems combined caused many people who were in line to give up without casting their ballot. The article also said that many ballots that were mailed in were not counted and tossed out due to signatures that did not appear to match those that were on file. Republican officials at all levels of government were aware of these problems but were content to wink at them because it served their partisan purposes.

Finally, the article stated that likely little can be done about what occurred during the 2016 election and although the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been fighting these voter ID requirements in the courts and will likely continue to fight them all the way up to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the election of President-elect Donald Trump and those that he would nominate to the Supreme Court, victory for the ACLU would be unlikely.

Is this really happening in the year 2016? Is this really democracy and what democracy is all about or have those that we have elected to represent us just completely lost their minds?! The right to vote and voting are core principles and major building blocks that help to form the very foundation of our democracy. Have our elected officials become so aloof that they presume to take away the right to vote of those who elected them to office simply because it suits their partisan purposes and boosts their political clout? Have they become so arrogant that they openly do this and do not even fear any backlash let alone consequences? In light of what is happening, I believe that they have!

It seems that politicians no longer go to Washington to represent those who elected them; they go there to build their political capital so that they can either run for higher office, line their own pockets or do both of these things. There is a reason why President-elect Trump won the election and our politicians had better realize this and do something about it before it is too late. They had better stop listening to all of these highly-paid lobbyist, return to how things were when statesmanship held meaning and was not just a 13-letter (bad luck for America?) word, and start listening to the people who put them into office if they want to see America prosper and grow.

Voters are aware that if our elected officials are to be able to govern effectively that there will have to be compromise. We know that we will very seldom, if ever, get everything that we want. Most of us are simply middle class hard-working people who want a few simple things out of life. Things like being able to earn an income that will enable us to own a nice home in a nice neighborhood, own a nice car (and maybe a recreational vehicle), have some reasonable semblance of a savings account, send our children to college – should they choose to go, and be able to live comfortably when we retire.

Most of us don’t envy the rich folks. Sure, there are those among us who would not mind being one of them, although there are likely many more of us who eschew this desire because we would not want to bear the stress that they endure to protect their money at all costs and their burden of the struggle to choose between shunning their personal greed – which, by the way, would not in any way diminish their lifestyle – or altruism. We do not want to take their lifestyle away from them so that we can have the previously mentioned things. But we do want them to do their part and pay their fair share to assure that America remains strong and financially viable. We want them to realize that, among them, they need not be the recipients of an astronomical percentage of all generated revenue in perpetuity out of the fear that if they are not, then they will cease to exist.

So our politicians should commit right now to return to the days when, although they were never looked upon without some degree of suspicion by their partisan counterparts, when push came to shove they were statesmen who always put country first and did the right thing regardless of their party affiliation. Whether or not politicians choose to do this is their decision. But this hell-inspired determination by the Republican Party to take away the right of legitimate voters to vote in the name of Party unity and to assure that their Party’s visions and policies will prevail is not their decision. No matter how virtuous that they perceive those visions and policies to be, the decision to vote or not to vote lies with each legitimate American voter who holds that right. And for the Republican party to take it upon themselves to deny any legitimate voter the right to vote is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Partially as a result of this obstruction along with all of those previously mentioned things, America has taken an unexpected giant step to the right and elected Donald J. Trump to lead the way forward. This is a democracy, the people have spoken and although many Americans are in a state of shock because we did not believe that anything like this could ever happen here; it has indeed happened. And all of us who are traumatized by it must resolve ourselves to the fact that President-elect Trump will become the President of the United States of America. We must accept this but as Democrats we must also continue to stand on our principles and fight hard to always make America a better place that is fair to all of its citizens. As President Obama said, perfect is unattainable but better is good.

At this point, it appears that President-elect Trump is stoked by a Steve Bannon mentality that is relentlessly motivating him to relegate many Americans to a second-class citizen status in the name of making America great again; this “better” is not among the ingredients in his “make America great again” plan. What he must realize is that he is no longer Donald J. Trump the candidate but he is now Donald J. Trump President-elect of the United States of America and that it is incumbent upon him to be the president of all of the American people.

He has likely by now been made aware of deep, dark secrets of America that Americans, other than its presidents, will never know. If he is a true patriot, he will embrace and accept these secrets on behalf of all American people and hold them forever in confidence. And despite the promises, and there are obviously many, that he made to his supporters before becoming privy to these secrets, he must make country his first priority and truly be the president of all of the American people.

Whether or not he will chose to be the president of all of the people remains to be seen. As things stand right now, however, based on those that he has thus far chosen to surround himself with since becoming President-elect, he has decided to thumb his nose at America and instead follow a path of divisiveness, racial and religious animus, and hate. He deviated from all of the norms during the primaries and general election and, against all odds, was successful. Hopefully this will not provide impetus for him to continue in that vein once he becomes president.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line