Character - and elections - matter

In her October 29 opinion (“In the long run, this too shall fade away”), Sue Lani Madsen defends the Spokesman-Review’s controversial editorial endorsing President Trump’s reelection despite his character deficiencies with the argument that the candidates’ characters don’t matter. “There is,” she writes, “a distinct choice between party platforms which will impact the country and the culture much longer than any man’s lifetime.”

Given that the Republicans declined to write a 2020 party platform, it is a curious defense. Instead they passed a resolution stating that they couldn’t produce one because of the pandemic but “enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” It has been reported that this is the first time since its first national convention in 1856 that the Republican Party has failed to adopt a platform. This year Trump is the platform. Madsen’s concluding sentence, “May the better platform win,” has a very hollow ring to it.

Also curious is her conclusion that the contentious 1876 election, which ended in disputed election returns, was “just another election.” Her point is that election divisiveness is of little importance in the long run. She seems to have forgotten that the political “bargain” that resolved the vote count disputes gave the presidency to the Republican Hayes in return for promises to withdraw troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction, thus paving the way for Jim Crow laws and 100 years of second-class citizenship for blacks. America is dealing still with the aftermath of the 1876 election.

Elections matter. Character matters. History matters, even in opinion pieces.

Fay Sweney

Coeur d’Alene