A Return to Normalcy?

No one in this country is unaware that next Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day. Many U.S. citizens have already voted, but what result can we expect from the presidential election? Can we expect a return to normalcy? 

Is this also Decision 2020?

Past Appeals for Normalcy

In his campaign for the presidency in 1920, Warren G. Harding’s slogan was “return to normalcy.” On May 14, he made his famous “Return to Normalcy” speech that included these words:

America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; . . . .”

That sentiment proved to be an effective and fruitful appeal to the American voters, who were ready to move back to “normal” after the disastrous “Great War” and the equally disastrous effects of the Spanish flu.

On November 2, which happened to be his 55th birthday, Harding was elected, receiving over 60% of the popular vote, the highest percentage in a presidential election up to that time.

While the same words were not used, there was some similarity with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s campaign of 1952. There was no pandemic just before that election, but the effects of WWII were still being felt, and then the Korean War had been raging since 1950. Many hoped for a return to normalcy.

Eisenhower won that election with over 55% of the popular vote and over 83% of the electoral votes.

In “What Joe Can Learn from Ike,” a perceptive 10/10/20 article in The Atlantic, author Ted Widmer points out that “Eisenhower instinctively understood how deeply Americans wanted to calm down and get back to normal.”

Accordingly, Widmer states, Ike “pursued a policy of strategic blandness.” That was a successful strategy, for as noted, he won by a landslide.

Present Need for Normalcy

This is a time of considerable abnormality in the USA. As in much of the rest of the world, the covid-19 pandemic has greatly altered the normal activities of most Americans and taken the lives of more than 230,000—and at present, the situation is steadily getting worse, not better.

But perhaps the greatest abnormality is linked to the man occupying the White House. Without elaboration, here are some of the most blatant abnormalities associated with DJT.

** It is abnormal for a President to lie so much.

** It is abnormal for a President to seek political help from the heads of other countries, especially those who head a totalitarian government.

** It is abnormal for a President to have so many family members working in the White House.

** It is abnormal for a sitting President and his family to profit financially so much while in office.

** It is abnormal for a President to be so disrespectful of women, Blacks and other People of Color, immigrants and asylum seekers from other countries.

** It is abnormal for a President to expect the Department of Justice to serve his personal and political interests.

** It is abnormal for a President to be personally involved in the celebration of a new Supreme Court justice.

** Etc.

Future Hope for Normalcy

Many of us are eagerly hoping for the election next week to be the beginning of a return to normalcy in this country. Such a return would not happen immediately, though. Things take time, and I plan to write more about that next week.

It will certainly take many more months for life to return to anything like normal because of the covid-19 pandemic.

But I am hopeful that next week will be the beginning of a return to an administration committed to truthfulness; to respect for, and the endeavor to seek the well-being of, all citizens; and to civility.

Maybe the USA was never fully like that, though, so instead of a return to normalcy my main hope and prayer is for the beginning of a much-needed new normal that embraces, among other things, truthfulness, respect, and civility.

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FYI: November 2 was also the birthday of James K. Polk, the 11^th POTUS. The election of 1844 was from November 1 until December 4, although Polk is said to have won the election on November 5.

Following the example of Heather Cox Richardson, I am posting below some hyperlinks to articles directly related to what I have written above.

“Trump is averaging more than 50 false or misleading claims a day” (WaPo, 10/22)

“Ballrooms, candles and luxury cottages: During Trump’s term, millions of government and GOP dollars have flowed to his properties” (WaPo, 10/27)

“Former U.S. attorneys — all Republicans — back Biden, saying Trump threatens ‘the rule of law’” (WaPo, 10/27)

“All the small things you can look forward to in a Biden administration” (WaPo, 10/27)