Reflection on The Last Four Years

By Jake Ebright

Jan. 8, 2021

There’s a proclivity in human nature to think that nothing of historic importance is going to happen in the course of our daily lives. That’s because, for the majority of the everyday moments that make up our lives, that is true. How many times are our personal decisions directly connected to world changing matters of consequence? Not too often. We don’t know the future, so the default is to assume that the situations we are involved in are ordinary.

But, from time to time, throughout the course of human history, extraordinary things do happen—both extraordinarily good and extraordinarily bad.

Strip away the haze of memory that comes with the passing of time, and I would posit that it is ordinary decisions that lead to extraordinary outcomes.

At one point in time, our Founding Fathers awoke in their beds in an ordinary way, just the same as we do every day. They threw off their covers, put pen to paper and laid the foundations for an independent nation. At one point in time, ordinary American men and women reached down to tie their boots, then marched off to join the war effort to defeat Nazism and help save the world. At one point in time, African American men and women took ordinary steps out their front doors onto the streets and called our country to deliver them the freedoms they were promised as Americans.

Together, ordinary Americans have dedicated themselves to the extraordinary pursuit of a country that stands for freedom, for justice, and for liberty.

But now, in the present, while the memory of Trump’s presidency and the images of rioters breaking into our Capitol are still freshly engraved in our minds, let’s not forget how we got here. Trump sat in his office having ordinary conversations and refused to say he’d accept the results of our election. Trump picked up ordinary phones and pleaded with anyone who would listen to overturn the will of the American people. Trump stood at an ordinary podium and incited a mass of his supporters to march on our own capital.

There’s no single arbiter of the truth. Our definition of truth and reality are determined by our collective agreement. That’s why we can have groups protesting for and against Trump, who both genuinely believe they are on the side of the righteous and good.

Seventy-four million Americans voted to support Trump, and we need them in our union. These are the sort of people who will plant a sign in their yard and hang a flag from their window to make it clear to everyone what they believe. These are Americans who are exhibiting the American values of steadfast belief in a cause and a willingness to stand alone in that belief despite what anyone says. And, when aimed in the direction of our country’s True North, these are admirable, patriotic, qualities.

However, in these circumstances, their direction was misguided. Their loyalty was exploited and misdirected by a man who likely wouldn’t be a friend to any one of them if they were to meet as individuals in normal, ordinary life. Trump has for many, many years only looked out for his own interests. He was disloyal to his spouses, he let others go on to risk their lives for the country while he stayed at home and later went on to criticize the very men—men like John McCain and Robert Mueller, men of courage and integrity—who went to fight when he did not.

Trump has no allegiance to any higher ideals. And the saddest part is, if he would’ve changed his course and looked beyond himself, he could have been a great president. With a once in a generation threat to our country in the form of this global pandemic, he certainly had the opportunity to be the leader we all so desperately needed in these dark times, a leader for all Americans. Unfortunately, Donald Trump did not rise to meet his most difficult challenge—the task of putting the interests of others before his own. When we needed him most, he acted like he always has, concerned only with his own well-being, even if it meant risking our democracy.

Our freedom and our values are not guaranteed. All it takes is one leader, one man or woman, who does not embody the true values of America, in seemingly ordinary ways, to set us down a dangerous path.

However, at a time when an extraordinary threat to our country arose, in the face of uncertainty, in the face of challenges to the very values that define our nation, the American people—citizens and politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike—stood up and met that challenge, defending our democracy and the sanctity of this nation we hold so dear.

But, while we’ve risen to the challenge this time around, let’s not forget how far the discussion of Trump’s baseless allegations went, how seriously they have been considered by members of our own Congress, and let’s never forget how easy it is to find ourselves on that dangerous road.

A Letter to Fellow Americans