When you spend four years of your life fighting for something and then you suddenly get it, it’s hard to know how to feel or what to do next. I’ve been waging war on Republicans for two decades now, but getting Trump out of office was a much higher stakes enterprise. Absolutely everything was on the line. Losing wasn’t something the world would recover from. For me, I would have had to find some other way to resist than writing, which also meant I’d need a new way to make a living.
The tension I’ve been under was so immense, I don’t think even I understand it. It’s been close to a life or death thing for me, so Election Night was excruciating as I waited for hopeful returns to show up.
Throughout this election cycle, I’ve endeavored to mix dispassionate analysis with advocacy for what I thought would best insure against possible disaster. On both counts, that led me to argue that Joe Biden could and would be the next president. I knew we needed Pennsylvania, and I knew he was the best bet to carry it. I’m skeptical that any of the eleventy billion other candidates could have accomplished it, but I won’t be argumentative on that point. I’m just grateful that I was right that Biden would get it done.
I wasn’t thrilled with the Kamala Harris pick on a strictly risk/benefit basis, but I’m ecstatic it worked out. It’s such a great feeling for a woman to finally reach such a high office, and she’ll be an inspiration to women and girls everywhere, in every country.
Whether Biden is a successful president or not, he and his clan are good people and they’ll make everybody better people, too. That’s what we need. That, above all, is what needed to change.
I’m just happy right now. Happy like someone who lived through a car wreck which should have been fatal.
One of my closest childhood friends died in a car wreck the Tuesday before the election, and I’m mourning his death fiercely. I know how chancy life can be, and we just dodged a bullet that would have ended our country and set the whole world on the precipice of chaos.
I’m going to relish this for a bit before I worry about what comes next.
The title of this post is the exact phrase that has been running through my head for the last 2 weeks.
Sorry you lost your friend, that’s horrible.
Many Blue cities are partying now, that’s for sure! I personally am now half bombed. We turned back a fascist monster, that’s worth a day of celebration!
My best to the Pond!
Science can finally breathe a sigh of relief. When Obama won in 2008, I had wanted to work for his OSTP in any way I could – making science policy. Then to see Trump leave the important position of science advisor open for the longest of time of any recent administration – an utter neglect which manifested in all wrong headed policies at EPA, FDA, CDC, NIH – all added up to a severe attack on science.
The drop has been precipitous – as my uncle in Canada said prior to Tuesday – who cares what USA does! The reputation is in tatters, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Sorry for your personal loss! I lost my father in July in India. Could not go to do his last rites! We are living through such turbulence that I am glad this plane landed safely!
My feeling as well, you captured my thoughts. Judging by my tv in front of me there are a lot of happy people out there. Joy and happiness has finally broken through if only for a little bit. We can now look forward to a better world rather than the further destruction of this one.
I feel your loss of your friend. I also lost my best friend as a young man to a car crash. He left when I was a young man but I think of him often and his loss.
Your words have always been needed. Thank you.
My condolences, Martin, in this most bittersweet time for you.
My condolences for your loss.
“Clan” is a spelled with a C, not a K. Please fix that, my friend.
Your feelings are similar to mine, Martin. Though I felt that my family would be relatively well positioned to get through whatever came next (though I may have been overlooking certain dangers), I was fearful for my country. I know we would not have survived the next four years with anything approximating a democracy. By 2024 we’d have political prisoners and this would have been the last meaningful election. So I’m beyond relieved.
Like you, 2020 has brought incredible loss. A friend and colleague succumbed to cancer early this year, leaving behind three young children. The father had died a couple of years earlier. A couple of days before the election another friend lost her life partner. And then, weird beyond belief, yet another friend, a woman who had been going through a never ending custody battle, got driven over the edge, murdering her two children before killing herself. She was the last person one would ever think capable of such a thing. An incredibly kind and generous woman who loved her children intensely. She must have felt that she was protecting them from something worse.
What a ridiculously constricted year this has been. I’m hoping (even praying) that this event will reflect a powerful shift. We didn’t get the repudiation of Trumpism we were hoping for. Our politics is still beyond troubled, our nation beyond divided. There are many struggles ahead. But at least this sociopathic, authoritarian lunatic is in the final days of his administration. Hopefully we’ll get these final days of Trump as president. Soon he’ll go back to being a dangerous demagogic clown. Not ideal but far better than what might have been.
I feel so much gratitude to my fellow Democrats who left it all on the field, giving money, making calls. Particularly African-American women in places like Philadelphia and Atlanta. But for them, we’d have lost. The very people who have been most put upon by our country were the ones who did most to save it.
I share your assessment on the overall outcome. I had that sense of relief at some point on Friday when it seemed the counting was on a clear trajectory, even though it might well have proven to be premature. In any event, it had already passed by the time the election was officially called, and since then I’ve gone back to worrying about what the next couple of months and then years are going to bring. Wish I could savor the moment a little more, but I can practically see China from my house and the State Department is in ruins. Also, what’s the deal with Trump firing key figures involved in the nuclear stockpile?
Also, very sorry to hear about your friend. Incidentally, I very nearly got killed in a car wreck going to work the morning after Super Tuesday 2000.
This last few hours, since late morning in my time zone, I’ve felt a deep sense of relief. I feel like we have collectively been given something of a reprieve. There are dark days ahead, yet there is now a reason to expect that we’ll emerge, if nothing else, scarred but more or less intact. The last four years have taken a toll on me. The anxiety caused during the last four years was a lot to bear. Any more of that would have ended me not just on a professional basis but on a personal one as well. Let’s try to enjoy the reprieve while it lasts.
My condolences on your loss. Losing a friend under any circumstance is painful. Seems to happen more and more as trips around the sun accumulate. Hang in there.
It was really too close for comfort, but the result feels great. Now we have four years to figure out how this country can continue to function without collapsing in chaos.
A few thoughts.
Right-wing authoritarians always come home, and they showed up. 71 Million of them, close to 9 million more than voted for Trump in 2016. Just about every vote that the Democrats gained, the Republicans matched. Right-wing authoritarians are always here, and they always will be. 77,000 votes over 4 states put a fascist into power and what, 80,000 votes over 6 states kicked him out. I knew the polls were shit the entire time, because Trump is not a Rmoney or a McCain. He’s an outright fascist. If it’s a proper fascist like Tom Cotton in 2024, ignore the polls, or just add about 6% to the fascist.
The 2020 election is not over. I live in Georgia, so I get to vote again on December 14th for 2 Senators. If you don’t live in Georgia, you can help by donating to Stacy Abrams organization, which is why Georgia just went blue. Fairfight.com. Donate. We could use her as governor in 2022 also.
For all y’all who don’t live in Georgia, 2022 starts today. Start working to get people registered to vote. Start working to get campaigns going. Not just for Senate, but for state government. If whatever momentum started in 2018 ends now because Trump is gone, then we’re still fucked without the Senate and State Governments as Republicans will go back to doing what they do.
71 Million Americans just experienced the past 4 years, and are still experiencing 2020, and went and voted for Trump.
We didn’t dodge a bullet as much as we just got a through-and-through GSW that didn’t hit any organs. And they’re still holding the gun.