After a unique electoral contest, the people have spoken, the majority has spoken, and we have a new president-elect in the United States of America: Donald Trump, the 47th president, who will exercise, for the second time, the national government at the head of the White House and the destiny of our nation.
I say “unique” campaign because it was a close, fierce, very tight presidential contest. According to the polls, but today, it leaves everyone with a bittersweet taste. Bitterness, because it was not the most exemplary electoral debate we have had as a nation, neither for Americans nor for the rest of the world.
Because it was a frenzy of publicity and suffocation, with appearances of the two candidates everywhere, by all media and at all hours; with an immense waste of money that shows the anti-democratic impossibility of future candidates to access government positions if they do not have such a quantity of machinery and resources and, in addition, an electoral campaign that was not characterized by the serious and committed presentation of government programs but, on the contrary, by insults, violence, fallacies, xenophobic speeches, disqualifications, insults, etc.
The sweet thing is that, despite all the above, today we see that the democratic game occurred. Democratic game according to which citizens and people can freely elect their leaders.
But, as a number of surveys and political analyses have shown, the hangover from this electoral campaign finds us with a divided, polarized nation, with more uncertainty than answers and with much to straighten out in national political events.
Today, all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, party leaders and governors, must read – between the counting of votes and their results – what are the cries and hopes of the Americans, what are the values and ideals that move the political dimension of the citizens and communities of this nation.
The triumph of the new president and the Republican Party is overwhelming – both in the electoral college and in the popular vote, in the presidency as well as in Congress – and we all hope that the president-elect and all Republican leaders will live up to the trust placed in them and to the challenges and hopes that our American society has in the present and for the future, both internally and in front of the entire community of nations.
We all dream of governing leaders who put aside their particular interests in the search for the common good, especially for the most vulnerable and needy in our society.
We all hope that the voice of the people expressed in votes on election day this 2024 will open paths of solidarity and national and international peace. May paths be opened for unity in this nation, whose motto demands it: “E pluribus unum”, so that we may all be one; so that with respect for others and for differences we do not divide or distance ourselves, but, on the contrary, we meet and progress.
All the issues that form part of the national agenda are susceptible to being reviewed and evaluated, and it is good that it be so. However, those of us who work in the area of health, protected by the regulations of the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) popularly and colloquially known as “Obamacare”, hope that the new administration will take care of and preserve – in said review – all the positive things that the current Law contains, especially, in relation to the care and benefits that Obamacare has derived towards the most neglected and vulnerable people and communities in our city and the entire nation, a population lacking resources and, therefore, unable to access extremely expensive medical insurance in our society.
The present and future of this great nation is built by all of us and by all of us. Our best human and religious values must be realized in our daily deeds and words, in permanent attitudes and actions that contribute to protecting our political and democratic system and the economic, social and cultural progress of our nation.
We recognize the need to put order in our borders and in the migratory movements towards our nation. This task must be carried out without xenophobia, without social prejudices, without violent and disqualifying speeches and, much less, without the unfair exploitation and labor exploitation of those who are considered “cheap labor.”
It is evident to all, and we cannot forget that the progress and present of this nation has its historical roots in the millions of men and women who, in successive waves of migration and coming from all corners of the earth – contributed and today contribute their lives and their best efforts and sacrifices to make the United States a great homeland and a land of many, of all: “E pluribus unum”.
We wish the president and the new governors and legislators elected to lead the destiny of our beloved country “good winds and good seas”, because their success in the governmental task will result in the success and benefit of all.
