“Joy cometh in the morning.”
No matter how dark the night or how long, joy cometh in the morning. The announcement came at 11:24 a.m.; the messenger was CNN. In New York City, a man stepped out on his balcony and shouted into the canyon of high-rises, “It’s about time.”
He was answered by a cacophony. From all the balconies, people made noise. With whatever they could find — pots and pans, bells, music, and raised voices — they made noise. The news traveled to the street and car horns blared, travelling upward to fill the air.
From Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, people who were glued for four days to TV screens peeled free and went into the streets to dance and sing — no long guns, no twisted faces and ugly words, no tear gas. In cities across the country, joy returned to politics.
At a Berkshire County farmers’ market, people burst into tears.
“Why am I crying?” one woman asked.
“The relief,” her companion answered.
The relief was palpable. It was as if America had held its breath for four years, and now America breathed free.
One neighbor called to another, “It is a beautiful day in America.”
“No,” the neighbor answered, “It is a beautiful day in the world.”
And from across the globe, the world celebrated. Ordinary folks in Europe flooded the streets, and their political leaders hurried to congratulate Biden. They wanted their relationship with the United States, interrupted for four years, back. One political leader summed it up: “Welcome back, America.”
Those who stood in line for hours to vote or drove ballots to city halls in an abundance of caution did so because they believed it was a vote for America, that the survival of our country was on the ballot, and were rewarded.
That was Saturday, Nov. 7. How long did it take Trump to kill the joy? Not long: It is in his nature. His method? Same as always — he denied reality. He cannot assimilate simple facts. It would be pathetic and compel sympathy if it were our doddering uncle unable to accept his fate. However, we, the American public, gave Trump power. Since we made that mistake, it is not pitiable; it is potentially dangerous.
However, it is also a mistake we the people did not repeat. More people voted in 2020 than ever before — approximately 161,000,000. Compare that to the last presidential election wherein about 138,000,000 voted. By a resounding 5,000,000 votes, the people asked Trump to please go away now. There is a tasteless joke in our nation’s capital whispered by Republicans not yet ready to speak aloud: “Trump had the 2020 experience: He caught the virus, lost his job and is being evicted.”
Inability to accept reality is a diagnostic category in DSM-III. It would be pathetic except that it strikes at the heart of our form of government. Democracy, like religion, requires faith: faith in our leaders, faith in our institutions and faith in one another. To strike at the heart of all three at once is a hat trick only attempted by those who wish America ill.
The presidency is about obligation, not entitlement. It is about protecting and defending the Constitution and the people. It is not about filling one’s own purse. It is not an excuse to be mean or misbehave. Trump got it wrong; 75,000,000 people got it right. America survives for another day, but …
Some of those who voted for the loser are harmless. They live in an information bubble — a loop of repetitive disinformation. They act according to what they believe to be true. Soon they will have to deal with reality. For example, novel coronavirus is killing people. They are dead. They did not come alive on Nov. 4, nor was Nov. 4 the end of the discussion about “COVID, COVID, COVID.” The virus was not a political ploy, not an invention of the Democrats to harm Trump; it was and is real.
When Trump won the presidency with 306 Electoral College votes and lost the popular vote by 3,000,000, he called it a “landslide.” When Trump lost the popular vote by 5,000,000 votes and 306 Electoral College votes, he called it rigged. At 2:32 a.m., a time when most are sound asleep, Trump went to a podium in the East Room and defied the Constitution and all that is fair, right and legal by declaring himself the winner and “claiming” certain states.
Trump was threatening the traditional order and our form of government. That is fact. We will all have to accept and deal with it. We have time to deal with it because Trump is both corrupt and inept. It was the salvation of our country. There was no coup. The white supremacists may have stood back, but they did not step up. The U.S. Armed Services ordered a no-fly zone over Biden’s house — an acknowledgement of his status as president-elect. The Million MAGA March, a demonstration to which they were entitled by the Constitution, was a few thousand who demonstrated peacefully, and by mid-afternoon, went peacefully home.
Biden told America he knew how to deal with bullies. Nothing Trump attempted in the way of attacks stuck to Biden. Partly that is because of who Biden is and partly it is because, as he asserted, he knew how to deal with bullies. How? He just kept on doing what he knew was right, unimpeded and uninterrupted by bullying. He still is. Regardless of whether or not Trump concedes, Biden has his transition team in place. Regardless of whether or not Trump can find the grace to congratulate the winner or signal the peaceful transfer of power by attending the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Biden will carry-on and carry through. Trump is, finally, as he always should have been, irrelevant.
Lincoln said: “With firmness in the right … let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds …” We need a nonpartisan consensus for our country and our form of government and against all those who, for whatever reason, threaten it. And never forget “the arc of history beds toward justice.”
