Crosstalk: What lies beyond the 2016 election?

That quote came to mind as I pondered what to write in this column that you will receive only hours before America chooses a new president. I believe 2016 to be the most important election of our time and the future, no matter who wins, deeply saddens me.

For the past several decades, the United States has been in a cultural war that has been fracturing our unity. We got to this place because, somewhere along the way, people became ignorant about the fact that America was formed around an idea: Liberty.

And that keeping the government from encroaching on our freedoms required vigilance and a thorough understanding of how the system was supposed to work to ensure it stayed in balance.

The majority of Americans now vote their emotions, or for what they will get, instead of protecting the rule of law.

On one side of our growing divide are folks who revere the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the protections they provide for the common man.

Because of the divinely-inspired framework set up by our founders, Americans can conduct their business free of fear from a dictatorial government. We have endless choices about where to work, live, study and travel because authorities are restrained from intruding on our right to seek happiness and prosperity.

On the other side of the divide are people who dismiss the Constitution as outdated and seek yet another experiment in socialism. The concept of meeting everyone’s needs by spreading the wealth around has long appealed to people wanting someone to take care of them and has been tried by numerous nations, but it always fails.

Socialism is the world’s greatest tragedy; it promises security and ends up 100 percent of the time incompatible with the most basic principle of human behavior: Humans will generally not perform any act of labor unless there is an incentive.

Suppressing the human spirit invariably causes socialist nations to fail economically. Benevolent dictatorship can easily give way to tyranny based on the whims of the political ruling class.

America has been the last, best hope of people fleeing brutal regimes that began with a promise that the collective would be cared for if they relinquished individual rights.

If Hillary Clinton wins this election, then America has made a choice to become socialist and heads further down the road of economic calamity. Clinton’s first appointment of a liberal judge will start the process of gutting our Constitution. Two to three more judge appointments will follow and the marvelous gift given us by our framers will be destroyed.

If Trump wins, we buy time because of his appointment of conservative judges. Expect obstruction from the Left at every attempt he makes to reform spending and curb government overreach.

The end result, no matter who wins, is likely a deepening divide that brings us closer to civil war. It’s just a matter of how quick we get there.

True conservatives will not give up their Constitutional freedoms without a fight. We believe to the core of our being that standing firm in our time is owed to the 2.8 million troops who have died on a battlefield since 1776 to defend and support our republic.

We hold Constitutional principles as a sacred trust and allegiance to these values is seared into our souls.

Only if liberals respect this strong belief system, and its underlying Judeo-Christian faith, do we have any hope of keeping the peace.

by Mark Gibson

In years past, voters have significantly exaggerated the impacts of national elections: The fears and frustrations anticipated post-election have simply not been as great as expected.

The role of the president is just not as earth-shaking as we give it credit for.

By the time you read this, voters will be casting their ballots. In a matter of hours, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will become president-elect.

Whether or not our new president will have an impact beyond or below our expectations is yet to be seen: We have no similar election to draw data from, and the candidates are unique.

What will the next four years bring? I’ll pull out my crystal ball and take a look...

If Trump is elected, chances are high that although a great deal of money may flow toward our southern border we will not have an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful, southern border wall” between the U.S. and Mexico.

A study by the Washington Post estimated the cost of Mr. Trump’s wall would be close to $25 billion. Such a wall is unrealistic, although Trump has said, “It’s realistic if you know something about the art of negotiating. If you have a bunch of clowns negotiating, it’s not realistic.”

True – I see no wall in my crystal ball.

And I don’t anticipate a successful “draining of the swamp” in Washington, either.

The office of president oversees just one branch of government. It is not a dictatorship, and the laws governing our democracy are unlike those of private enterprise.

If Mrs. Clinton is elected?

We can count on a great deal of highly intelligent policy geared to her party platform, but I suspect it will be overshadowed by years of investigations and court appearances.

Clinton has shown herself to be “highly careless,” in the realm of state secrets, and there are plenty of icebergs floating in her wake that await further investigation.

Beyond that, we have seen the Clinton legal and legislative teams before and will be seeing them again.

Dynasties are pretty predictable.

That’s about all I see in my crystal ball. How accurate will it prove to be?

I haven’t really pulled it out since 1999, when I published the following in the Chronicle, presented here in part:

“With the year 2000 almost upon us, I found myself wondering what the future might hold so I dug out the old crystal ball and carried it out under the full moon.

“I saw a nation abandon democracy in the face of their own fear, become a police state where your papers had better be in order.

“I saw the rich become richer and wallow in their wealth, while the poor became poorer and black despair overtook the American dream.

“I saw politicians prostitute democracy, selling the future of our children to the highest bidder while their constituents lived so far beyond their means they too had nothing but debt to pass on to the next generation.

“I saw acre after acre of rich farmland scraped of life and paved in the name of economic fertility. Orchards and fields became malls and housing developments, quiet paths became exhaust-choked highways.

“I saw a nation of consumers lusting after graphic death and violence, all the while pretending that none of it was real and they were immune to its impacts.

“I saw a people dancing on the edge of an abyss of their own making, celebrating the dawn of their own destruction.

“Then I pulled the cover off the crystal ball and tried to peer into the future, but all I could see was my own distorted reflection and a twisted moon.”

Pretty accurate, in its own way.