Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian
The dancing in the streets from coast to coast that spontaneously broke out throughout the day and into the night Saturday was exactly the right response to celebrate the survival of American democracy. We have plenty of time in the weeks ahead to talk about how much more remains to be done. First things first.
President-Elect Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t be getting their chance in January to begin repairing the incredible damage done to our country over the past four years if the largest winning presidential vote margin in history hadn’t ended Donald Trump’s toxic, anti-American presidency. There’s a reason why all those joyous public demonstrations in our own country so closely resembled street scenes we’ve seen broadcast from foreign lands throwing off decades of brutal military oppression under authoritarian dictators.
Trump’s defeat makes him the latest victim of his own incompetence at controlling the deadly pandemic now surging in a tidal wave across the country. It’s taken only 10 days for 9 million infections to reach the 10 millionth expected today. The current record-shattering daily infections of more than 100,000 are expected to triple before Biden takes office with Wisconsin now leading the way. Trump’s only national strategy—lying to Americans to pretend it isn’t happening—has increased the death toll and destroyed more small businesses by encouraging his supporters to endanger the lives of others.
Destructive Party
Sure, it was disappointing every cowardly Republican Senator up for re-election who supported Trump’s destructive presidency wasn’t immediately thrown out of office along with him. American democracy and human decency were on the ballot with them too. But it was never going to be such a snap to overcome the years of raw hatred, racial and religious bigotry and national division Trump inflamed.
Both U.S. Senate seats in Georgia are headed for runoff elections Jan. 5 that could determine whether Republicans retain a narrowed majority or split the body 50-50 with Democrats. In an evenly divided Senate, Vice President Harris presiding over the Senate would break tie votes. Both parties will pour millions of dollars into winning those races, but the outcome of runoff elections with reduced voter turnout can be unpredictable.
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But even if Republicans manage to eke out a slender Senate majority, Sen. Mitch McConnell could destroy whatever future his party has left after Trump if he tries to block Biden from saving American lives in a raging pandemic and reviving Trump’s shattered U.S. economy. Voters want their elected leaders to save the lives and jobs of Americans, not kill them.
Restoring Unity
President-Elect Biden’s pitch-perfect presidential victory speech about restoring national unity and ending paralyzing congressional gridlock was exactly what a majority of Americans want to happen after Trump’s disastrously inept presidency.
Biden restored the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania just in time for the 2022 midterms to target the open Republican seat of retiring Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who embarrassed his state by spreading Russian propaganda in support of Trump. Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, now 87, who joined Johnson’s sleazy investigation of Hunter Biden is unlikely to run for re-election in two years. Biden’s success continued to build a metropolitan coalition of Democratic urban and suburban voters who are willing to try to sincerely address America’s glaring racial inequalities in policing and criminal justice.
The future for Republicans is not nearly as promising now that the cult of Trump has been broken. What Republicans ought to do is drive from their party the most reprehensible elements of society Trump attracted—Klansmen in hoods and Nazis wearing swastikas who beat African Americans in the streets of Charlottesville, Va., with one driving a speeding car into a crowd protesting their presence killing a young woman and injuring dozens of others. But don’t count on Republicans being so responsible after shamelessly supporting Trump.
Fighting bigotry and hatred in our country is always difficult because many of the worst offenders are undercover. Few are as public with their vicious racism as Trump. They pretend to be decent, respectable citizens. Many even claim to be good Christians, but it’s not the Christianity we learned in Sunday School. We learned God was love, not hate. But they always insist they don’t have a racist bone in their bodies. Their bones may be perfectly nice, but their minds have to be really ugly to vote for an openly racist president.
Democrats have a terrible habit of blaming each other when they don’t achieve everything they want all at once. Every faction in their party was more united to work together than ever before to defeat a dangerous threat to American democracy and they attracted the most presidential votes in history. You just saved democracy, for God’s sake. Go ahead and celebrate a little. Dance in the streets, if only virtually.
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