Elections aren't what they once were and neither are we

You want to know how old I am?

I'm old enough to remember presidential elections where those on the losing side didn't think their candidate's loss meant an apocalypse of sorts. I can remember when folks losing elections would smile and say, "We'll win next time."

There were certainly elections that frightened people, most of them involving a man named Milhous. But the stakes went way higher when the right wing decided that God was a Republican.

1980.

That's when the Moral Majority and the Rev. Jerry Falwell jumped into the political pool and told America that Ronald Reagan was God's choice to be president of the United States.

He also said it was impossible to be a liberal and a good Christian.

Now the purpose of this isn't to go after poor Jerry.

Poor dead Jerry.

The only purpose of putting poor dead Jerry is to establish when -- and why -- the stakes got so much higher. In 1976, when Jimmy Carter edged President Ford in the first post-Watergate election, there weren't that many people who thought the world would come to an end when Carter won.

Sadly, that was the last election about which I can say that. The 1988 Bush-Dukakis race wasn't a huge deal, but that was largely because neither man really inspired much passion one way or the other.

But 1992 was when things got really nasty. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and now Hillary Clinton became out-and-out villains to the right, and the 40 percent or so of the country that will always vote Republican put them right up there with Adolf, Uncle Joe and Chairman Mao.

It's not like this is new to anyone, but it got much worse this year with the unscrupulous Donald Trump overwhelming the regular Republicans. Instead of the standard campaigning, Trump attacked Hillary by saying he would put her in jail if he were elected and encouraged raucous audiences to scream "Trump that bitch!"

He did something far more dangerous than that when he insisted that if he lost, it would only be because the election was rigged against him.

Once was the time elections happened and people on both sides accepted the fact that we all loved the same country and there would be other elections in the future.

I don't think either side feels that way this time. I think both feel for different reasons that the country they love is slipping away if it isn't already gone.

This one is a big test for us.

It may be the one that tells us whether the country we leave our children and grandchildren will still be around in 50 years.

Take it from me.

It's not a foregone conclusion.

We're going to have to work to get past this one.