Election 2016 - It Could Be Titanic!
America is considered a strong country with a strong government backed by a strong constitution. You could say after 240 years we were built to be indestructible…forever we shall stand a powerful example for the rest of the world to admire and model.
But men have said many things were too strong to break, too tough to fail in the past, and yet many times those things were failures.
Tuesday November 8, 2016 is Election Day in America. A day America’s form of government will be tested like it may never have been before.
In 1912 the creators of the RMS Titanic were sure they had built the finest large passenger ship ever built. It was said the ship was indestructible, nothing could sink her. She was sleek and fast; a testament of man’s creativity and power to conquer the seas and Mother Nature.
Filled with people celebrating the new steamer, Titanic set out April 2012 on her maiden voyage to sail from Southampton England to New York City.
The ship was captained by an old sea dog, EJ Smith, about to retire and brimming with confidence his great new ship could cross the seas in record time and with little effort. It was the best of man’s modern technology versus the always challenging North Atlantic.
Early on the 15th of April, after 6 warnings of icebergs in the North Atlantic the Titanic struck a large iceberg and a little over 2 hours later sunk causing the deaths of over 1500 people.
The ship the Captain was sure would never go down when he was quoted “I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder, modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that” had in fact failed.
Why does the Titanic story fit with the 2016 election? One phrase can be used to explain: Confidence in something seen as indestructible.
We believe our system of Government is strong with built-in checks and balance and able to withstand all the political changes and political characters that come and go. We believe it the greatest government ever created.
But Election 2016 is like the Titanic story in that Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is the unknown danger that lurks. He is the iceberg.
Through the whole election process he has been a challenge to his own party and a challenge to his rival and the people of America. He is a challenge that has many unseen dangers hidden beneath the surface like an iceberg. We have little facts about his past; we have little idea of what his presidency would be if elected.
We can say no problem; our political system has been through bad candidates before. We can say no problem; people are smart enough to not vote for him. We can have all the confidence in the world he will not be elected.
We can be so arrogant to say Trump may be a problem but if he is elected it will force a change this country needs in its politics.
We can say America is unsinkable.
Are we prepared to ignore the danger of electing Trump and do reckless things like not vote, or protest with a meaningless vote, or worse, vote for Trump?
Hopefully America will not choose to try to test our political system like it has never been tested before. Hopefully the good people of this country turn this election in the direction away from Trump and decide not to challenge the known dangerous waters.
Hopefully we avoid a disaster as titanic as the Titanic.