The Day After the Day After

I’m bleary and my head aches as I wake up this morning. I spent what seemed like several hours in the middle of last night doing my small solipsistic part to solve the problems of the country. I don’t think I made much progress, but my mind would not give up until exhaustion set in.

Biden seems to be on a narrow path to victory and calls for patience until all the votes are counted. Trump continues his specious claims of victory, reports of imaginary voter fraud and attempts to stop the late vote counting that seems likely to put Biden over the top.

I am encouraged that the vote counting continues as planned and that Biden appears to be poised to gain the electoral college votes necessary to become our next President. It’s comforting to know that Biden has already received more votes than any Presidential candidate in the history of our country. He has not run a particularly inspiring campaign but Biden seems to be a genuinely compassionate human being who has a deep sense of responsibility to our country and our collective future.

On election night, one pundit observed that Donald Trump is the greatest fund-raiser and motivator in the history of the Democratic party. Trump has indeed aroused the passions on both sides. A record turn-out for this election. While many of us hoped the Democrats would be motivated to come out, none of the polls predicted the level of support Trump has received this election—seemingly above his anemic approval ratings that have never reached above 50% at any point in his Presidency.

And so we wait.

I was going to go carry a ‘PROTECT THE VOTE’ sign yesterday afternoon, but ended up deciding that going shopping was a better choice. I honked supportively as I passed the handful of people holding signs in front of the Friends Meeting House on Pleasant Street. I felt slightly guilty, but also somewhat confident that indeed the votes are being counted. So, for now, I have postponed taking to the streets. (Whatever that may mean or whenever that may truly be necessary.)

Now, as we wait, the ongoing conversation is about what this vote says about America. The polarization is vivid. We should, however, remember that a few percentage points swing in either way would turn the election into a ‘landslide.’ Victory is a funny thing. In our democracy, power shifts from one party to the other based on the smallest margins. And like the football team that wins by one or two points, the victor goes on to talk about their superiority that is actually based on the random bounce of an oddly shaped ball.

Robert Hubbell maintains that the Trump message resonating with so many voters is: “The privileged past was better for you, the future is frightening and uncertain.” The dream of the good old days is a powerful one. Based on both truth and imagination it creates a powerful, and ultimately unrealistic, nostalgia. When we focus too much on how things were we have less capacity to meet the challenges and bear the difficulty of the moment.

The future, and indeed the present, is frightening and uncertain. The work for all of us is to see as clearly as we can the challenges and possibilities of what is happening right now. This requires us to see things about ourselves and our unintended impacts that are painful and dispiriting. But until we see our current reality more clearly, we cannot move toward the dreams, principles and values that call to us all.

Advice for the day:

1) Feel your feelings,
2) Remember your purpose, and
3) Take the next step.