In the nine hours or so which have passed since Joe Biden became President-Elect and Kamala Harris became Vice-President-Elect there has been a catharsis in the United States. This catharsis can be seen in car horns beeping for hours on end and spontaneous street parties.
My own catharsis began as I dragged a suitcase of my clothing to the laundromat in my neighborhood in Midtown Atlanta. As I was about to enter the laundromat, I was stopped by Pierre Bouvier, a journalist with Le Monde. He stopped me because I was wearing my Biden hat and asked me why I supported him. I spoke of the pandemic and that Biden understood what it was to suffer.
Over the course of the day, I've seen people wearing Biden-Harris paraphernalia, carrying signs and American flags and standing in cars as if every sports team in the country won a championship today. Today was a celebration for Team America. The common denominator is the sense that there is a light at the end of the Trump tunnel. While Trump does have 74 more days in office and with it more damage, disease and death will come. But there is world of difference between 10 weeks and four more years. Nevertheless, there is a collective sense of relief. A sense that life in America will get better soon.
Had Donald Trump been re-elected, I would have been making long term plans to return to Canada. These plans have now been rendered unnecessary. Which is good because I am as far away from Canada as I have ever been.
Still, the catharsis is not yet complete. Aside from the fact President Trump remains in office for another 10 weeks (and is not eager to concede), we are still in a pandemic and while I did partake in some of the reverie I did not stick around long. Obviously there was cause for celebration but social distancing has been disregarded at the worst possible time. We are topping 120,000 new COVID cases a day. As of this writing, there are more than 9.8 million COVID cases (9,841,444 as of this writing) and we will likely hit the 10 million mark sometime on Monday. Alas it is a challenge to celebrate with caution.
The catharsis will accelerate when Biden is sworn into office on January 20, 2021. It will be complete once the pandemic has been ended. Unlike the inauguration there is no definite date when this comes to pass. But this date will be far more likely to come with a President who acknowledges there is a pandemic and emphasizes with those who have suffered from the disease and with the goal to provide relief from COVID-19 and the economic hardship it has caused.
But today was the first stage of the American Catharsis. November 7, 2020 will be forever remembered as VT Day - Victory Over Trump!!!
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