Well, after what seems like eight years of campaigning, the election is finally over. No matter whose politics you more closely identify with, it is undeniable that this has been an historic election. It’s also been an election where mud-slinging has been the rule rather than the exception, where each side demonized the other and misrepresented and exaggerated the other’s positions. One of the things that disturbed me the most is the ongoing suggestion that one candidate wasn’t a “real” American, or that Americans who held certain political views weren’t “real” Americans. Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated a related problem very clearly when he addressed the rumor that one of the candidates was a Muslim. He stated that the rumor was false, that the candidate was in fact a Christian, but then asked why it was anyone’s business, why it mattered. One candidate for Vice President suggested to voters in one section of Virginia that voters in another section of the state, who were on the other end of the political spectrum where not “real Virginians”. Who gets to decide who among us are the “real” Americans?
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