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A few years ago, my dear friend Mags was lamenting the state of the world, wondering why the corrupt always seem to get away with their crimes, why the greedy prosper, why dishonesty always manages to win out over truth, why justice never seems to be truly done.

I reminded her of what a good person she was, and rattled off the names of our mutual friends – exceptional people all. “When you think there’s no hope, Mags,” I said, “just remember that there are more of us than there are of them.”

Over the intervening years, Mags has often repeated that phrase to me – when she despairs that all of the things gone wrong will ever be made right. “I know, I know,” she says. “I have to remember: there are more of us than there are of them.”

And there are – and nothing has proven that fact more than this election season.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen the very worst among us not only given free rein to spout their hatred, their bigotry, their lies; we have seen them actually encouraged – nay, incited – to do so by candidates running for the highest offices in the land. But we have also seen the backlash – the plummeting poll numbers, and once-loyal party members distancing themselves from what is being passed off as politics-as-usual because they recognize it for what it really is: hate speech in the guise of campaign rhetoric.

In recent days, this election changed from being a battle between two men, two political parties, two ideologies. It is no longer about fundraising acumen, running the perfect ad at the perfect time, or demonstrating the most intuitive campaign strategy.

This election has been transformed into something more – more visceral, more basic, and eminently more important.

It is about decent people who want to feel decent again. It’s about people who abhor torture not because it is ineffective, but because it is morally reprehensible. It’s about people who don’t see the homeless on their streets as something that brings down property values, but a situation that calls into question our values as a nation.

It is about people who want to earn their living honestly through hard work, and not on the backs of those who toil and reap no benefit from their own labor. It’s about people who want to hear the truth not because it validates their own thinking, but because, like it or not, the truth needs to be told.

It’s about people who worry not only about their own future, but the future of their neighbors, their communities, their fellow citizens. It’s about people who recognize that the enemy isn’t the person who hates you, but the person who encourages you to hate others.

Yes, we have unfortunately seen the worst of us in recent days. But we have also seen that there are more of us – good, decent, caring people – than there are of them: those who would feed hate rather than hope, those who would sow anger rather than plant the seeds of compassion, those who would see a nation destroyed rather than a country rebuilt on a foundation that includes everyone.

Mr. McCain, the Citizenry just called – and they’re taking their country back. They are taking it back to the ideals that once made it great, and will make it great yet again. They are taking it back from the warmongers, the deliberately dumb, the intentionally ignorant, the torturers, the greedy, the corrupt, the uncaring, the ungiving, the hypocrites, and the liars - in other words, the very people you have encouraged to speak out as though they had anything of true value to say.

By all means, keep pandering to the bigots, the homophobes, the pseudo-Christians, the haters, the knuckle-dragging great unwashed - in other words, your base.

But as you do so, keep in mind that there are more of us than there are of you and your kind, sir. And that will be your undoing – as well as theirs.






(This post is for Mags, and all the people like her - people too good at heart to be dismissed, and too kind of spirit to be ignored any longer. This is HER time, this is MY time - this is OUR time, and it will not be taken from us.)