This election, what did we learn from our past?

State Sen. Janice Weiner says at the conclusion of the 2024 presidential election our country will have answered an important question about what we’ve learned.

In a matter of days, Americans will be presented with a question. The way in which we collectively answer that question will determine the course of our immediate, and perhaps long-term, future. The question Americans will face on Tuesday, Nov. 5:

What have we learned?

I recently watched an interview with a Holocaust survivor who stressed that the danger lay in “giving permission” to hate, to fearmonger, to divide. We’ve seen that permission granted in our country’s darkest moments: McCarthyism. Jim Crow. America First.

On Oct. 27, at Madison Square Garden, we saw it granted again, as former President Donald Trump and his guests unleashed a torrent of hatred, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and Christian nationalism. President Trump demands loyalty and promises to punish his enemies.
We’ve seen that before, too.

I served as a U.S. diplomat in East Berlin as the Iron Curtain began to come down. I saw East Germans flee to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. I watched as the people demonstrated in the streets of Leipzig and East Berlin, demanding an end to their suffocating authoritarian system. The Berlin Wall fell because the people had had enough of autocrats walling themselves off, amassing power, enriching themselves, and demanding unquestioning loyalty. The people had enough of secret police, propaganda disguised as news, punishment for dissent, and robbed opportunities. They wanted freedom.

I love my state, and I love my country. We have an opportunity to prove that we’ve learned our lessons from history, and to design ourselves a future in which our children and grandchildren will thrive – a future filled with possibilities, education, and freedom. We can demand a  government that is transparent and accountable to the people. We can elect leaders who will keep their oaths to the constitution and to the American public.

We need not be condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. We need not be in a position where we need to ask ourselves, what could we or what should we have done? Vote.

Janice Weiner is a Democratic state senator from Iowa City. You can reach her at [email protected].