This blog started 12 years ago as mostly a political blog. Therefore, it was very fitting that today, Joseph Robinette Biden secured the necessary electoral votes in excess of 270 to become President-elect of the United States, defeating Donald Trump who became only the third incumbent president since World War II to lose the presidency.
This campaign - more than any other campaign - was a war for the soul of a nation and who we are as people and who we wish to be. Joe Biden's running mate who is now the Vice-President-elect is emblematic of what this election was all about. She will become the first female Vice-President, the first African-American Vice President, and the first Indian-American Vice President. What a historic, groundbreaking achievement - an achievement that the American people enthusiastically accepted, rather than rejected.
More than any other election in my lifetime, I felt the gravity of this moment. Four years of greed, corruption, malfeasance, and ineptitude coupled with a Republican Senate and the courts that enabled him every step of the way laid the foundation for the worst four years of the nation in my lifetime. Our international reputation is in tatters. COVID viral infections are out of control. The economy has collapsed, and even before that income inequality was at an all time high. Racial injustice and acts of violence against African-Americans are now center stage and captured on film, brining to light the rampant extent of systemic racism. These are not just Donald Trump's sins; they are the sins of this nation and its broken promises on so many fronts.
Joe Biden will inherit multiple crises on day one, but I am confident that there is no one better-prepared to tackle these challenges. Joe knows how Washington and governing work. He believes that perfect is the enemy of the good, and he will re-assemble a civil service comprised of well-qualified men and women who will bring stability and solutions to government.
For this presidency to succeed and for our nation to succeed, Joe will not be able to turn things around himself. He will need all of our help. Count me in!
I said several times leading up to today that I would never ask for anything again if Joe won and Trump was defeated. I meant that, and I will never take for our freedom or the fragility of our democracy for granted. I hope you feel the same.
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