Yesterday, like on November 7, 2020, when the election was called for Biden and Harris, I felt a profound sense of relief and muted contentment that our nation and the world had escaped the worst and we could dream anew of a decent future. But why only relief and contentment rather than exultation of the kind I felt when Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and I literally cried tears of joy? Through all the lovely events of yesterday, including Biden's superb speech, the wonderful executive orders abolishing some of the most horrendous aspects of Trumpism that so shamed and blighted our nation, and the marvelous evening concert, I remained dry eyed, subdued and more than a little gun shy.
Why the difference between 2008 and 2021? Back then, I believed that in electing a Black president, America had finally overcome and expunged our original sin of racism and Americans had at last emerged from the conservative reaction that began in 1968 and would finally seek and achieve social justice and the healing of the planet. How naive I turned out to be! As it soon became clear, the very election of a Black president would trigger a profound racist and fearful reaction that led almost half of the country to embrace a genuinely evil man in 2016 determined set back the clock 100 years or more, to weaponize the bigotry, xenophobia and isolationism that has been part of the American story since the beginning, and ultimately to efface American democracy. itself Incredibly, to me and so many other believers in human decency, with the help of a whole coterie of Republican enablers, most of whom now pretending they had no hand in it, Trump came terrifyingly close to achieving that sinister goal. Tens of millions of our compatriots looked evil in the face and decided to vote for it twice.
Yes, we need to reach across the barricades and find ways to reconnect with the majority of the Trump base which thought he offered hope for something better. Many or most of them didn't fully sign on to his promotion of the big lie that the election was stolen, and certainly didn't buy into the overthrow of the constitutional order through violent assault on the Capitol. We can forgive and search for common ground, but we cant drop what happened on January 6 down the memory hole and say, 'All is forgiven' if we are to stand any chance to preserve democracy going forward. The threat from Trump and Trumpism is still very real and for that very reason, my own eyes were wide open and quite dry yesterday.
I'm more clear headed today than I was in 2008...but I so miss those beautiful memories. Will we ever again have a moment of pure joy and boundless hope like the one when when Barack, Michelle and their two girls took the stage in Grant Park in Chicago to celebrate with the millions of us who felt like the Age of Aquarius had finally arrived? I would argue that 'peace and love' sugar rush is not needed now. What's needed instead is renewed commitment to democracy, pluralism, and social justice and hard and dogged work--in the halls of government and by those of us in the grass roots—-each and every day to bring America closer to the long awaited achievement of those ideals.
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