Election Hangover

I had hoped for a blue wave and a clear Biden victory though I knew the odds were small. As I write this at 5:30 a.m. on November 4th, the Presidential election is too close to call and looks like it will remain this way for several days. And, as predicted, Trump is making wild claims and threatening to go to the Supreme Court to claim his rightful victory before all the votes are counted.

I am incredibly disappointed that the election is this close. Trump, in my eyes, for the past four years, has so clearly mounted an all-out attack on our democratic institutions, has used whatever means at hand to enrich himself and his corrupt friends, has weakened our country internally through sowing discord and hatred, and diminished our national standing in the whole world. I am amazed and astonished that nearly half of the electorate still prefer him to Joe Bidden.

Biden may still be our next President, but the division in our country, the alienation from the news reported and fact-checked by mainstream media is deep and visceral. The chasm between red and blue America is wide and vast. How will we ever come together? Have the internet and the news bubbles so easily created and maintained brought us to parallel stories of reality that will never intersect? Trump’s continual and self-serving assault on the verifiable truth is still supported (or at least tolerated) by a huge swath of our country.

I heard Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts and former Presidential hopeful, interviewed on the radio yesterday afternoon. She had just voted in person at her local elementary school and enthused about filling in the little bubbles on the ballot as a real-time demonstration of democracy at work. The good news this morning is that the election still happened, that the turnout was at historic levels and that the predicted violence did not happen. This is good news for all of us.

Warren was optimistic, as were all Democrats interviewed yesterday that Biden would win and the Senate would shift blue. I haven’t yet looked deeply into the news, but it looks like the Senate will remain in Republican control. Despite the huge amounts of money contributed to defeat Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, both of these staunch Trump enablers have retained their seats.

But Warren also made a clear call for continued activism. Even in her dream of a Bidden Presidency and a blue Senate, she called for all of us to remain engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport that happens every two or four years. The real work of our society—dealing with the pandemic, institutional racism, income inequality, opiate addiction and environmental degradation—all these are ongoing and deeply challenging issues. Warren called us all to stay engaged for the long haul, whatever the outcome.

There was some other thing I saw as a positive development. What was it? It’s fled my mind along with the fantasy of a dramatic shift in the tone and complexion of our government. Now I remember, it was the appearance of the news analysts on PBS last night. We don’t get cable so I didn’t see the other networks, but the analysts on PBS seemed to be at least half or more women. Brown and black people were also prominently visible. I’m sure someone will do the exact counting and comparing, but to see and hear significantly more diversity, even at PBS, is a heartening sign.

I’ll close this morning with the words of Richard Hubbell, who sends out a daily newsletter of information, perspective and inspiration that I find reassuring:

We must maintain our resolve. During difficult periods in the last four years, I have invoked the memory of the late Congressman John Lewis. As a young man, he marched with other brave men and women who sought to bring attention to the need to guarantee voting rights for Black Americans. Lewis, along with dozens of others, was brutally beaten while attempting to peacefully walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Birmingham. Lewis’s skull was fractured, and he spent several days in the hospital. When he was discharged from the hospital, he rejoined his colleagues for a second march across the bridge. John Lewis did that for us, so that we could vote today. His act was selfless and forward-looking. He was a prophet of a future not yet fully realized, but one that is inexorably approaching because men and women like John Lewis were able to transcend the moment. John Lewis did not give up, did not feel sorry for himself, did not bemoan his circumstance, did not calculate the odds, did not stay in the fight only if he was winning. When he died, John Lewis was eulogized by three American presidents. Those who beat him are remembered today as symbols of the ugly legacy of slavery.

While we are waiting for votes to be counted after a surprisingly peaceful and uneventful Election Day, we must not give up, we must not feel sorry for ourselves, we must not bemoan our circumstance, we must not calculate the odds, we must not stay in the fight only if we are winning. Through our activism and resistance, we have become prophets of a future not yet fully realized. But it is the future that is rushing inexorably towards us because of our efforts over the last four years.

Let us take our role as prophets of the future seriously—for our children and grandchildren. Let us continue to work toward a just, equitable and sustainable future for all. Let us not measure our actions by the yardstick of momentary victories and setbacks, but by the importance of the goals we cherish. Let our actions reflect our highest aspirations and our words spring from the deepest and fiercest love we know.