Senior Moments

I remember reading a book, Quo Vadis, as a youngster.  I vaguely remember a movie with that same name, but I’m not sure about that.  The book is a historical novel set in the time of Emperor Nero of Rome.  Quo Vadis is Latin for ‘Where are you going?’ and the book evidently made quite an impression on me since it popped into my head after fifty-some years.

Betsy and I went to Hendersonville yesterday to help out my folks and on the way back home we listened to a Nashville radio station.  There was a report that some organization was driving illegal aliens to early voting places and helping them vote.  The report, backed up by at least one election commissioner, was that the voters could not speak English and had no ID, but were allowed to vote anyway.  I had never thought of Nashville, Tennessee, as the home of a major political machine.

The report may not be true, but the fact that it was even made is disturbing.  One of the foundations of the American way of governance is that we have fair and free elections, and after the election is over and the people have spoken, we will all come together in support of our leaders.  This obviously did not happen in 1860, and to a lesser it didn’t happen in 2000 and 2004.

So what will happen this year?  What will happen if a sizable part of the American public thinks they were denied their right to vote?  What will happen if a sizable part of the American public thinks the election was stolen by voters who shouldn’t have voted?

Quo Vadis, America?