The long night is almost over, we have awakened from the terrifying nightmare, we have released a loud collective exhale. When I lie dying, on some far-off day, I will remember the scenes etched into my consciousness on November 7, 2020, when I saw the return of the America I have known and loved. People danced in the streets in massive conglomerations of skin colors, sexual identities, religious beliefs, ethnicities, professions, education levels, income levels. There were no angry chants, no pumped fists, and only a few negative signs–just flag waving, singing, and dancing. What I saw in those images on my TV screen was unadulterated joy and relief, and it was beautiful.
It’s been an excruciating four years and a time which I’m willing to admit has shaken me to my very core. I, along with my fellow Americans, have watched in horror as a rogue “president” and his accomplices have taken a wrecking ball to our democracy. Most heart-rending of all has been seeing people I have long known and respected pulled into the snare of a lying, cheating, grifting con artist. We have watched truth be reduced to “opinion.” We have listened to more than 22,000 lies spoken from the presidential pulpit and echoed by millions, all without consequence. We have witnessed foreign interference in our most sacred right, welcomed by the beneficiaries of that interference, also without negative consequences. We have watched an impeached “president” brazenly demand reelection and millions of our friends, neighbors, and family members line up to cast their votes for him.
We have seen statesmen uncloaked, revealing themselves as just power-hungry mercenaries; and we’ve seen their constituents eagerly reelect them. We’ve been witnesses as the Party of Lincoln has devolved into the Party of Conspiracy Theories and Incompetence. “Moral high ground” has come to mean nothing more than pro-life, anti-abortion fanaticism. Lives lost to gun violence, black lives cut short by police cruelty, children kidnapped and held in cages for three years or longer, families unable to buy food because they’ve lost their jobs as a result of a pandemic–these lives have been irrelevant in the predominant “moral” code.
We have watched nearly a quarter million, so far, of our fellow citizens die while not a word of condolence or comfort or genuine promise of help has been spoken from our White House. We have watched the dismantling of the structures which were put in place during previous administrations to manage the possibility of a pandemic. In their place were only the fatuous comments about how, when we least expect it, the coronavirus will magically disappear–maybe a little faster if we just inject some bleach or shine a light in the appropriate place.
Worst of all, we have seen the jaws of authoritarianism and fascism open and bare the vicious fangs which would love to devour us, to destroy the world’s oldest functioning democracy, to prove that this great experiment of ours has failed and was just a pipe dream all along. We have watched the fabric of our democracy stretched almost to the point of being torn asunder, our country reduced from leader of the free world to laughing stock of the world. But fascism, you can close your ugly jaws and go back to where you came from. We are stronger than you.
Joe Biden won the election, but most important, WE won. We showed that, although we can be swindled into a period of darkness, the American spirit is real; this experiment is still working. We have earned the right once again to call ourselves the land of the free and the home of the brave, to wave our flag proudly as a symbol of an imperfect union held together by imperfect people who believe in the goodness and strength of the human spirit to overcome adversity.
We have tons of work to do. This country had problems before the inauguration of 2017, and the inauguration of 2021 is not going to make them disappear. The good that has come from these last four years is that they have shined a light under the beds and in the corners and the closets where we’ve kept our dark impulses hidden and pretended they had gone away. They’re all out now, right in the middle of the living room, and we have to start house cleaning.
What this election did for us was give us the leadership to guide the country through the hard task of looking honestly at each other and remembering that what unites us is stronger than what divides us. The last four years have revealed the deep prejudices that exist; now it’s the job of every single person to examine their own heart and acknowledge their own prejudices, because everybody has at least one. If we are to be whole again, every person must begin with cleansing his/her own soul. No political party has all of the right answers; healing will require finding our common ground and building on it.
Joe Biden has never been accused of being exciting. He’s not suave, polished, or sophisticated; he’s not an eloquent orator. He can be clumsy, awkward, and gaffe prone; in fact, gaffes have been his m.o. What he does bring to this time of healing is goodness, and goodness is what we have most been missing. Joe Biden is a good, decent, loving, kind, compassionate, empathetic human being who knows how to wrap his arms around a person or a nation who’s hurting and truly “feel with them” (the definition of empathy). Although the Democratic Party has its own set of problems, the wisdom of choosing a man such as this for a time such as this is a testament to the party’s moral fiber and patriotism.
Spoiler alert: Here comes another of my mother’s favorite sayings. She was fond of saying “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.” That pivot some people kept waiting for in 2016 and 2017 couldn’t possibly have happened, because the raw material was not there. The person elected president in 2016 did not have the knowledge, temperament, wisdom, dignity, or class to be president. Hoping to make a beautiful creation out of that raw material was futile, to put it kindly. A pig’s ear is a pig’s ear, period. It can’t be silk, and it can’t be made to look like silk.
Joe Biden is not pure silk either, but he’s high quality cowhide; and that makes a pretty solid, durable purse. A silk bag is only good for a fancy evening out, but that leather bag can go anywhere and endure pretty much any abuse. President-Elect Biden has been tested, and he’s a survivor. He’s suffered loss–both of loved ones and of ambitions and elections–and he didn’t come from wealth or privilege. His driving force has been to serve his family and his country, and he has faithfully done that for 48 years. He is strengthened by his faith, though he doesn’t flaunt that faith or use it as a weapon. If he goes to church, it will be to worship, not to stage a photo op; and no tear gas will be required.
Congratulations, America! I have never been more proud to call you my home. Now let’s all get to work! We have a lot to do. The world is celebrating with us, but they’ll also be watching. Let’s not let them down again. Let goodness, decency, kindness, and compassion prevail. God bless America!