AND! We will have our first female Vice President. 
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Obama built the cages. While I am by no means supportive of Trump’s policies and methods, the many problems with US government isn’t Trump acting alone.
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I’m so happy!!!
I think what we, or I guess I should say Democrats, should be thinking about now instead of future Trumpers or what could happen in 2024 is the senate runoff in Georgia! That’s huge! Two senate seats there which would entirely change the power in the Senate. All my extra money is going to be funneled to getting Ossoff and Warnock getting those senate seats.
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I’d argue that I am worried for 2020, and 2021. National terrorism is a huge threat, and it’s still facing our nation.
Creating an environment in which that hatred doesn’t have need to flourish, because everyone feels drawn along instead of left behind is critical. The schism can’t be healed by doubling down on moral superiority.
Sanity has reigned just long enough to get people to the polls, but the policy set on the first 100 days is going to be crucial to getting people to the polls in 2024.
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This gave me feelings.
I completely agree. T just took terrible immigration policy and put it on steroids.
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+1
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My understanding- He also really expedited the expansion of executive power. Which Trump clearly took and ran with. I deeply hope Biden doesn’t rely too heavily on executive powers for change, because even if it’s done for people’s best interest, it deeply worries me how it can be applied in the future. When things aren’t achieved by consensus, it’s just too easy for it to all be instantly reversed and then some.
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Maybe we can just take a day to be full of joy and moral superiority and go back to doing the work of sniping at ourselves in the morning??
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It’s going to take some time to get a truer narrative on what even happened in 2020.
We still have major events on the more immediate horizon - the Georgia Senate seat run-offs AND whether Trump engages in some type of self-pardon strategy.
Then ideally by Q2/Q3 of 2021, we’re looking at widespread rollout of a COVID vaccine. (I’m sure many people will point out in the post-script that if not for COVID, Trump likely wins this).
It sounds like Biden’s current strategy is getting the team together with an immediate focus on COVID stimulus/relief. This will be the first and a key test of how obstructionist McConnell plans to be.
The other really important fact is that Trump GUTTED the administrative state. Trump was not actually competent at getting things done, and he had no interest in governing. It’s going to take time to literally fill job positions and get things “working again” across many agencies.
We also have the Supreme Court about to hear the ACA challenge case, though who knows what type of ruling if any will happen before then, or if an ACA patch can/will need to be on a first 100 days agenda.
And last - we are going to need to see what actions are taken against domestic terrorist groups, both by the FBI and law enforcement AND by social media. This IS a scary time, but the institutions still exist to do something about this, if the bipartisan will is there.
So that’s what I’m looking at, rather than expecting Biden to somehow “undo” 4 years of Trump, or even trying to predict what the 2022 midterm election landscape may look like.
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While I am relieved, I anticipate the road ahead is not going to be easy.
While Twitter is supposed to limit Trump’s feed starting Jan 20, I think he will still be involved and agitating.
Our country is deeply divided. Politicians like to talk about receiving a “mandate” which always rubs me the wrong way unless it’s a landslide. I really hope Biden can make good on his talk of unity. We have parts of the country that support deeply different policies. While Obama brought a lot of good change, he did it by passing legislation when there were more Democratic folks in Congress, so we really didn’t build consensus as a country. We need to move away from the extremes and whiplash - one administration tries to move dramatically in one direction, and the next reverses a lot of those change and whips back in the other direction. That old art of compromise… It worries me that some people in Congress run on refusing to compromise, their way or no way. We can’t heal our country that way.
I want to take a political science course. I’m always intrigued when I hear other countries say, No one won a clear majority, they will need to build a coalition government. I don’t have a good understanding what that looks like. But I wonder if we need that - good representation by people on both sides, AND a commitment to work together for the common good of the country and not just furthering the interests of one side or the other.
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Trumpism - a populist brand of conservative politics - hasn’t died. It’s in fact stronger than ever - 5 million MORE people voted for trump than 2016.
Not to mention, the amount of accusing fellow citizens of being terrible people for voting for Trump (regardless of their reasoning). We have a mess to clean up.
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I think the question is really only how obstructionist he’s allowed to be, and the answer to that will come on Jan. 5 in Georgia. He’s proven he’s willing to do absolutely anything and sacrifice absolutely anyone in the name of his agenda. I’d definitely say he’s a worse person than Trump, because I think he is fully rational and chose to act as he did, and I don’t think that’s entirely true of Trump.
I am not convinced that this is a problem that we need to fix. At some point, we have to be wiling to call evil by its name, or else it will rise. Pastor Niemöller made this point pretty clearly, and he even started with the socialists as the first attacked, pretty close to what we saw here. We have dodged a bullet, but if we don’t call it by its name, others will follow more easily (they’ll follow regardless, but calling them what they are will help). We should allow for people who did not recognize it to realize their mistake and try to do better, but we should not minimize the gravity of the situation or the moral culpability of those who still defend it.
Edited to fix the runoff date - Jan 5, not Dec. 5
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Yeah, I agree.
I’m in a state that went blue. Last weekend I went for a hike and was shocked to find a Trump convoy on the local interstate. They were going slower than the speed limit, so those in the left lane were passing. It went on for MILES. I couldn’t see the beginning or the end. There are a lot of very dedicated supporters. If the powers tha be don’t listen and begin to address their concerns too in a substantive way, they WILL be back in 2024 supporting someone else. Maybe even if we DO listen.
Towards the end of this election cycle, I’ve tried to listen / read other points of view.
Common ground: we all care about our country and it’s future. When I listen to the other side’s concerns, there are some things I’m deeply opposed too, but others where I even agree with them. I think there are many things we all want. I’m hoping our leaders can start to identify that common ground and start working on some ways to build on it.
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I don’t doubt that he’ll try, unless it’s against his own father. I just don’t think he’ll garnish the needed support.
I would like to see Biden put some limits through on the executive order power. I think that might be one thing he could get through both the senate and the house, and it would serve our country no matter who is in power in the future.
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Someone in my feed just pointed out: I just hope we don’t sweep crimes under the rug in some false sense of unity and healing. We just achieved the liberty part, now on to the justice for all.
I know we all want to move on. I do, too. But there are things we can’t condone and positions that we can’t reason with. Maybe living in the heart of the area where lyncings occurred (/still do) makes it easier to see. There are some people with whom those of goodwill and decency have no common ground, and should not seek any.
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This is my take, as well. McConnell was willing to sacrifice the morality of his chosen profession, in order to get his way. It’s deeply disturbing.
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Ooookay, fair. How about the weekend, even? I certainly don’t plan to do much beyond standing my watch and reading some sin bin fan fiction.
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I see your point, but I don’t think that the isolation and furor - not to mention the morality call - against neighbors, friends, and strangers for their voting choice in a 2-candidate race is fair. I voted for Biden because I liked his policy and personality better than the other choice. but I am not aligned with him on many many issues.
Many people voted for Trump not because they condemn BLM, or don’t believe science, or whatever. For them, the issues and policies they care about were represented by Trump, or were the closest represented by Trump. This could be abortion policy or it could be - quite clearly - the economy. If the Covid pandemic hadn’t happened, trump almost surely would’ve been re-elected given the state of the economy in January.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t extremists on all sides. Trump has managed to connect the office of the presidency and the Republican party to white supremacists and give them a platform far more than any other president since segregation. He mainstreamed un-mainstream extremist positions. I disagree with his policy decisions on most things, and I really disagree with the way he approaches the highest office.
That being said, coloring anyone who voted for trump with a big “nope” sticker isn’t going to help us get…anywhere.
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Everyone in my city is going insane with joy right now. Constant horns honking, people crowding onto major thoroughfares with signs saying “ByeDon” and “Hate Lost.”
We were almost to the community garden this morning and heard cheering and it literally did not even occur to me that they’d called the election. I thought, “huh, I guess some men did the thing with the sportsball.” Boyfriend immediately cued up “We Are the Champions” on his phone and we sang along while cleaning out the bed.
Someone down the street from us is serving champagne to passersby.
It hasn’t totally hit me yet. Actually, it hasn’t hit me at all. Though my shoulders are down for the first time in I don’t know when.
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