This is a rework of a post I put up last December. This Sunday, 16 October, marks the 54th anniversary of the event that was at the heart of that post. That’s a long time ago; many will feel no connection to the event. Yet, Hillary Clinton made reference to it during her acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. She did so because the event still has commanding relevance.
The principal way I evaluate presidential candidates is what I call The October Test.
I remember walking home from school one day in October of 1962 to parents who seemed unusually subdued and particularly attentive to the television. Over the next few days, they watched a lot of news. That passed, nothing changed in my young life, and I forgot about what I never had paid much attention to.
It was not until several years later that I happened upon a book on the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that, I looked for more on the topic: books, articles, documentaries, whatever I could find. I began to understand how deeply frightened people in knowledgeable positions had been. I began to understand how frightened my parent must have been. I began to understand how close we had come.
Delve into those two sobering weeks and you never again will look at politics or politicians in the same way.
I now view every presidential candidate and every vice-presidential pick through the prism of those dark days. I imagine each candidate in the role of John F. Kennedy. I try to imagine that candidate, huddled with whomever I think they might surround themselves, waiting for the next communique from Moscow and facing Armageddon. I try to imagine whether they would have the character and the prudence, the steadiness and the humility, the patience and the creativity and the judgement that it took to save the world during that grim time.
No better appreciation is to be had of the gravity of the office.
Democracy does not promise easy choices. It does not care whether we feel good about a vote. Just the opposite: Democracy places demands on us as citizens. Presidential elections are like no other. At that level, there is no such thing as a vote to “shake things up.” There is no such thing as a protest vote or sitting out the election. Thomas Paine said, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
If you know an undecided voter, ask them to try The October Test. If you know someone voting for a third-party or considering a protest vote, ask them to try The October Test. If you know someone sitting out the election or who thinks it’s in the bag and their vote is not needed or who just doesn’t care, ask them to try the test. Warn them that they will have to do some homework. That’s okay; it’s a time worth knowing about. They will be better for it, and they will be better citizens for it. Ask them to try the test.
If done honestly, if done in good faith, I believe that most undecided, disgruntled, or indifferent voters will see the danger. I doubt but hope that some Trump supporters would see the danger. He must not become president. It must not be close. Too much is at stake.