From Todd Larson

Blanchardville

To the Editor:

I often quote to my godson / farm manager the adage that ‘two men do the work of three’. With apologies for the unnecessary gender specificity of that saying, let’s focus on its core wisdom. A team that pulls together is far more impactful than the sum total of each member working separately. Wisconsin and the United States should take heed.

The midterms are behind us. Our preferred candidates won or lost. But a new domestic balance has been struck. We now have an imperative to advance the premise upon which we all agree: America is the greatest nation on earth. To rebuild its international standing, we are well advised to work together with all friends and neighbors, whomever they voted for.

Fellow Americans — and those who aspire to becoming American — are our comrades in arms. The regimes of Chinese Xi Jinping and Russian Vladimir Putin are our avowed enemies; nothing would make them happier than to see us fail. It’s as simple as that. To prevent China and Russia from steamrolling over the US, our collective energies will need to be focused and strategic.

I have been as guilty as anyone of plastering my car with self-righteous bumper stickers — perhaps catchy and clever (eg ‘OMG GOP WTF’), but serving no constructive purpose. I hereby commit to removing those bumper stickers. To rolling up my sleeves and leaning forward arm in arm with my fellow participants in the American dream.

This is a call to set aside our differences, recognize that strength comes not only in numbers but also from diversity and collective effort, and rebuild our leadership on the world stage. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: If we don’t hang together, China, Russia and Elon Musk — they are in this context one and the same — will gleefully see to it that we hang separately.