I have “Ghostbusters” in my mind. This is a serious matter, but I don’t want to think these people are real. Can we absolve the nation of a scourge that has opened gaping wounds of misunderstanding, fear, animosity, disbelief, and selfishness?

I see the ghosts of 1860 floating above the U.S. House and Senate, as members refuse to admit to the damage 147 of them have inflicted against democracy by thinking they are advancing their own political ambitions. Or because they fear going against a failed leader just a few days before his replacement. His successor will be sworn in Wednesday above the very steps where a mob carried the Confederate banner along with the American flag. These invaders used the pole carrying the flag to batter down the door to the U.S. Capitol and seriously injure one officer and kill another. Reporters, who have been verbally bashed for four years as the source of “fake news,” were threatened with bodily harm. An Associated Press news team covering the Capitol had their camera smashed and escaped before experiencing a similar fate.

Now 25,000 National Guardsmen are camped out in and around the U.S. Capitol to insure there is no repeat of January 6 mob-rule there. As a nation we have experienced ongoing political disagreements. Americans upset over the decisions of the President or Congress have come to Washington many times in the past. Think about the WW I veterans who camped out on the Mall demanding their promised bonus pay during the early days of the Depression. But they did not batter down the doors of the Capitol, create mayhem inside, force Members of Congress to hide in the tunnels, or kill or maim Capitol Police Officers.

Beat the Drum for Discontent

This time the one who had beat the drum for discontent for four years had molded those fearful of the loss of blue-collar jobs and a changing world into a movement to take the nation backward—Make America Great Again. Red hats of the GOP right-wing flutter all over the Washington Mall and State Capitols where followers refuse to believe political decisions are tipping towards the Democrats, who want to boldly walk into the future to attempt to solve the nation’s problems.

What we have never had before is a leader elected as President who was willing to lie repeatedly to followers, whose critical thinking skills were relaxed by the words they wanted to hear. Lies repeated by such a leader can easily incite brain-washed followers to riot, as they did two weeks ago. The MAGA crowd that flocked to his speeches in 2020 became “true believers” during the first three years of his administration. Then in the fourth were trained to disbelieve the risk of COVID, shun mask-wearing and infect others at their events, including the President.

From “Fake News” to the “Big Lie”

Next he laid the groundwork for his biggest lie: “The only way I can lose this election is if the Democrats steal it from me.” And what was the chant outside and inside the Capitol on January 6? “Stop the Steal.” Then he planted the seeds of “fraud” and “evil” done by the opposition and repeated the lie over and over and over again, until it became unrefutable among the MAGA. Critically thinking people might consider whether he would say that if he were not afraid of losing.

The mob he called to Washington for the final counting of the Electoral College votes and confirmation of the 2020 Election Jan. 6, he then recruited to go up to the Capitol to attack the people who had denied him “another four years.” (He lied again telling them he would be going with them, of course he did not, being only the one who incites.)

306 to 232 – Final Tally

He conviently forgot that it is the American people’s votes who decide who will sit in the Oval Office in 2021, not the Congress. The final tally after all the millions of dollars and personal hours spent on recounting in PA, GA, MI, and WI resulted in the same final outcome. Joe Biden won, receiving 81,281,891 popular votes to Donld Trump’s 74,223,254 and the electoral votes were 306 for Biden to 232 for Trump. When Trump received 306 electoral votes in 2016, he called it a “landslide.” He doesn’t see the number that way now.

There will be no voting system that could satisfy people who fail to trust any organization other than MAGA, particularly if the system doesn’t consistently yield a win for their leader.

The Rolling Stones put it this way, “You Don’t Always Get What You Want” in politics or in life. John Adams in1800 felt he got a raw deal in his second term election against Thomas Jefferson. He didn’t attend Jefferson’s Inauguration, but he didn’t draw a mob to battle inside the Capitol. More recently, 200 years later, Gore and Bush came down to the “falling chads” in Florida that some argue to this day, but Gore, being the out-going Vice President, stood as did Vice President Pence, and gracefully and methodically certified Bush’s win without a temper tandrum. We work with what IS, not with what we’d like it to be.

The current President’s response to this election sets a bad precedent for Little Leaguers who REALLY want to win their games, same for high school football players, one of whom tackled a referee on the sidelines this year when he didn’t like a penalty called against him. We need to walk this back so we can begin to play the entire game fairly—down to the handshake at the end that is customary in baseball and was in politics, even when we lose.

America, its politicians, and its people have a huge job ahead, slowly beginning to look at each situation to establish fairness as a standard.  To begin to reestablish that facts DO exist and to work towards trust by listening to other views. Maybe it will take more than four years to unravel the mind-numbing double-think of the last four years, but we must start the process now.

If we can do that, we won’t need Ghostbusters. We’ll begin to whittle away at the ghosts of the past who are haunting our present and threatening our future.