For those who weren’t paying attention before Nov. 2, the election results should be a real wake-up call. There were, undoubtedly, many who voted for the president for reasons having to do with perceptions of leadership quality, steadfastness and a message easy to grasp.
Sadly, however, the president and his key advisers also pandered to the fears and ignorance of radical religious and other extremist segments of the national population, thereby creating a divisiveness and uneasy feeling in this country not seen since the days of McCarthyism.
Their appeal to so-called “moral values” in the narrowest of terms without reminding voters of the values on which this country was founded, was both vacuous and irresponsible. Values such as tolerance and acceptance of human diversity, respect for differing points of view, fairness and compassion, and holding corporate criminals responsible for their crimes were largely ignored.
Instead, hatred and ignorance helped determine the election and, by doing so, have served to put the nation on a dangerous course.
Barry Fulmer
Freehold Township