Well, it’s Election Day and I know what that means for most of us: the end of endless candidate ads and ads for or against various proposals. Hopefully, since Colorado is a mail-in voting state, you’ve already received confirmation from your local elections office that the ballot you mailed in a while ago has been received and counted. Or maybe you’re a traditionalist and want to drop off your ballot in person today. That’s okay, just remember that it’s too late to mail it; You must take it to a mailbox or an election office.

The election may seem endless and the publicity irritating, but today the nation finally decides, although it will probably be a few days before we know the final results. That is No for any prank or trick, no matter what a certain failed businessman says. No, it takes time to count accurately and completely million of ballots. A short wait is a fair price to pay for a free and fair election, which will be, once again, regardless of what a certain convicted felon and serial adulterer says.

Stay up to date: Sign up to receive daily opinion in your inbox Monday through Friday

That being said, we should take a moment and celebrate how extraordinary it is that in the history of the world we live in the nation with the oldest written constitution. There are those who argue that a couple of small nations have older nations, but among the large nations, we are the oldest surviving ones. Interestingly, and completely unrelated to any argument I’m making here, it is the longer The constitution belongs to India, with almost 450 articles, compared to our seven. Okay, back to a little history.

Please remember that in your American civics class long ago there was no certainty that our nation and our Constitution could stand the test of time. Famously, as he left the constitutional convention for the last time, the early American Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the convention had given us. His insightful response was: “a republic, if you can keep it.”

When Lexington and Concord were fired upon, there was no realistic reason to believe that our little revolution would succeed. We were facing the greatest military power the world had ever known, with the British army and navy being the wonder of the world. We face this powerful army with unstable popular support, poor infrastructure and a tiny, nascent army. If I had been alive then, I would have had real doubts about whether we were going to win the Revolutionary War or not.

Today, when history has told us of our victory (however incomplete), too many Americans feel too comfortable in their democracy. They assume our system is inherently secure, and in many ways it is. However, there is one danger that I sincerely hope this election eliminates: a candidate who, for the first significant time in American history, has declared that he wins or wants people to take to the streets. Hell, just yesterday he “joked” about people shooting members of the press because they report their lies and misdeeds in a way that he can only try to thwart by claiming they’re making it all up.

And that is why today is truly a revolutionary day. The Founders put in our hands the ability to fundamentally change our government every two, four, and six years through national elections. I immersed myself in that vast democratic experiment back in 2008, when I ran for the United States Congress. This should be a day of celebration. Heck, it should be a national holiday, as I suspect there are some people across the country, in both red and blue areas, who can’t get to the polls on Election Day due to work limitations. Voting is the most important act a citizen can do, and we must try to ensure that there are no logistical barriers that prevent people from going to the polls.

Until 2020, we had always had peaceful transitions with the passing of power from an outgoing administration to the newly elected one. That changed when one man decided to defy the will of the people and attempted to commit what is the closest thing to a coup our nation has ever seen. Even Nixon, much brighter and more capable than Trump, knew when it was time to leave office.

With Trump, who also said a couple of days ago that he should never have left the White House, we have a deeply flawed, rather foolish and dangerous man who is trying to gain and maintain power for a variety of personal reasons (such as, for example, I don’t know, he’s not going to federal prison for his 34 felony convictions?), and a notable number of Americans agree with that. They agree with the tens of thousands of documented lies and the utter dishonesty of his current campaign.

I’ve always said that the greatest ability the Republican Party possesses, and Trump has it in massive quantities, is the ability to get people to vote against their own interests. They’ll talk about lowering taxes on the rich, because, you know, the effect trickles down. And they will shout about the border when they learn that Obama deported more people than Trump, and that most illegals are people who overstayed their visas, and that most major drugs arrive on big ships and not by climbing a fence

Unfortunately, none of that matters, and in a few days we will know whether Trump fooled enough people to win another term. Remember that dozens of his former employees (people he called the best people ever) have spoken publicly about how dangerous he is. A second Trump term will see people like convicted felon (whom Trump pardoned without due process) Michael Flynn as chief of staff, and Trump’s days, before he leaves at noon to watch TV, will be ones of retribution and revenge.

I clearly have a point of view, but we should all We agree on the vital importance of election day and participating in the process. I believe in the old axiom that if you don’t vote, you don’t really have the right to complain about how things are going. So if you’re reading this on Election Day and your ballot is there in the pile of mail, sort it, fill it out, and take it to a ballot drop box or election office. today.

And don’t worry, political ads will disappear very soon. But the bad news is that Black Friday ads are about to take their place.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired political science professor and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught for more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.