Despite having turned into a bit of a political science junkie in recent years, I don't think I will ever watch election night coverage anytime in the future due to the anxiety that it causes. I will forever have paranoia about "what polls say" or what networks project after being burned badly in election results starting in 2016.
I knew a lot about Georgia's run-off special election being held on Tuesday of this week. I had donated money to Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organization (fighting voter suppression) as well as to the Democratic candidates, Reverend Raphael Warnock (who is the 11th of 12 children and grew up in the Savannah projects) and Jon Ossoff (a 33-year-old Jewish filmmaker whose wife is an OBGYN resident in Atlanta!). I wrote many Vote Forward letters and over 100 postcards to Georgia voters in November and December to encourage voter participation in a crucial election. I prayed, and then I left it in God's hands.
I woke up on Wednesday morning to the great news from Kelvin (who reads his New York Times updates early!) and my sister-in-law (with a text reading "GEORGIA!!!!") that it seemed that both challengers (Warnock being the first black man elected to the Senate in Georgia) had pulled off defeat of two fairly offensive Trumpy incumbents, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler, to flip their Senate seats in the deep south. It was truly historic, and a very pleasant surprise for me, a Democrat who now always prepares my heart for the worst possible outcome come election day. Georgia's (late) civil rights icon and Representative John Lewis, who passed away last year, is undoubtedly smiling down from heaven, as is Atlanta native Martin Luther King, Jr., who we celebrate later this month and whose historic church Rev. Warnock served as pastor.
As we learned in November, Georgia, formerly a deep-red Republican stronghold, is changing pretty rapidly, demographically and, as a result, in its political leanings. It is definitely a battleground state, and the amazing organizing that Abrams (the daughter of ministers), as well as other grassroots activists, have done in the state over the past decade or so is nothing short of remarkable (now, if only we could clone her into Florida, North Carolina, and the like). I have heard many interviews with Stacey over the years and read her recent book, Our Time is Now, and find her, and everything that she's done for the state of Georgia as well as our nation, absolutely inspiring and incredible. She is a faithful patriot who, when knocked down, just kept opening doors. She plays the long game. And, in a world and times of so many villains, she is a hero.
Later in the day, we saw our joy dissipate and things turned dark, as right-wing Trump loyalists at a "rally " on the National Mall, led by the formerly impeached and lame-duck president (who still refuses to concede the election he lost more than two months ago), became an armed, rioting mob of terrorists that invaded the Capitol building to disrupt the certification of the Electoral College results by Congress (and the will of the American people), resulting in the death of at least four people and an officer, traumatizing many more, and destroying national property.
These actions (which also demonstrated the extreme privilege that comes with being white, and a white nationalist) were absolutely atrocious, and this is exactly what so many Americans like us feared would happen with having an authoritarian White supremacist and sociopath like Donald Trump elected as president (and subsequently defeated in his attempt at re-election). We progressives have been accused of being overly dramatic in our perception of the repercussions of Trump's winning an election, but our fears were obviously validated this week. Trump's false claims of voter and election fraud, as well as his efforts at mounting unsuccessful vote recounts and judicial challenges, have only made more of this country's citizens believe conspiracy theories and doubt the integrity of our free and fair (in most cases, especially for white people) elections, which comes at a loss for everyone, including for all elections going forward for both major parties. I try really hard to be gracious and forgive those that repeatedly present as enemies, but am currently having a hard time excusing their behavior in any rational way or wanting to extend any olive branches. My “hometown” being right outside Washington D.C., I have spent a lot of time in and around the nation's capital, and I was extremely disturbed (and yes, angry) by yesterday's events and the desecration of our national grounds, something (prior to Trump) that most of us never thought would happen in a "civilized democracy" like ours (was).
I don't know that I'll ever understand how such a large proportion of Americans could have enough darkness, resentment, racism, and vitriol in their hearts to vote for (and then vote to re-elect) a man I find it extremely hard not to hate because of how damaging he has been to the fabric and spirit of this country. I don't know that the people that share his views and who live in such a fictionalized version of the world can be reached or their hearts/minds changed ever by anything, including facts, the truth, connection, or kindness, that any of us humans can provide, but it's obvious that their extremism and views (bolstered by right-wing social media, Fox news as well as recent power) took things too far on Wednesday (and, in my opinion, there should be severe consequences for their insurrection. If those Proud Boys had been black, they'd have surely been shot).
Many Republican lawmakers (including Mitt Romney, of whom I'm no fan), thankfully had the courage to speak out against the terrorism unleashed by the (outgoing) leader of their party. Many Republican election officials stood their ground when asked by the president to falsify election results in his favor. While I have strongly disagreed with just about every part of the conservative and Republican political platform since I became a voter twenty years ago, and think our country would be much better off with that party (especially in its current state) basically burned to the ground, I am thankful that some of the individuals that still identify as Republicans had enough morals and basic principles of decency to stand for democracy rather than cower to the dictator that we've legitimately and resoundingly voted out of office. Too many elected officials (and citizens) were (and are) still silent and complicit, and it's still lamentable that the destructive, dark sentiments and grievance politics of Trump supporters will live on in this country, long after their dear leader is out of the White House. Many people think that Trump should be removed from office immediately via invocation of the 25th Amendment or imPEACHed again even in the waning days of his presidency, just so, with hope, he can never run for public office again (I doubt this will actually happen, but after acts of sedition like we just witnessed, I'm now convinced that it would be an appropriate step).
Despite one hundred and forty-seven Republican members of Congress (8 senators and 139 House members) objecting to certifying some states’ election results, Joe Biden (later in the night) was still (thankfully and FINALLY) certified as the next president of the United States and will take office in thirteen short and blessed days (even though Trump can still do a lot of damage in a fortnight, and we're bracing for more violence come inauguration day January 20th). All elections have consequences, and it was so critical that we had a Democratic-led House, and will have a party that can hold its own in the historically anti-Democratic Senate (with my favorite hashtag ever #KamalaTiebreaker) for probably the next two years. I'm so thrilled (and pleasantly surprised) that, due to the Georgia Senate results, Joe Biden will be able to start his term without the threat of extreme legislative obstructionism that has plagued previous Democratic presidents (most recently Barack Obama), and I can't wait to see Chuck Schumer literally rip that Senate gavel out of soon-to-be-former Majority leader Mitch McConnell's malicious, filthy, amoral hands (McConnell actually showed some courage yesterday, but it was too little, too late). I am so looking forward to see the Democratic party have some freedom to attempt to get so much positive work done-- for COVID relief that is sorely needed, for the vaccine rollout, for voter protection, for widening access to health care, for justice for "the least of these," for climate, and more, all of which just hasn't been possible in the recent past due to sheer numbers alone (and minority rule). The party representing the majority of people in this country actually has the executive and legislative power for the first time in a decade, and we'll see if some coalition of principled Republicans can get peeled off and come along to get some critical things done.
On the deadliest day of Coronavirus deaths (close to 4,000) to date in our country, and amidst shocking terrorism in our nation's Capital on a dark day in our country's history (capping a dark, four-year Trump era), democracy hung on by a thread and (thankfully) held. This wasn't the last time our nation will be tested or shaken in such a way, but it sure was alarming (while, sadly, not surprising) and I hope that even more people had their eyes opened to the dangerous road we have gone down (from which we may never fully recover) with emboldening the extremists in a political party like this one. As I've written before, we can't eliminate evil, but we can (and did) outvote it in November, and Georgia did it again on Tuesday. Votes matter. Voting matters. Being “apolitical” or "neutral" is no longer an option, as the stakes are too high. Change indeed can and should come through a peaceful, democratic process (which can include unarmed and peaceful protests), not through breaking windows and brandishing guns (and Confederate flags) in our country's capital. I hope we have all learned our lessons-- stay woke, everyone. May we never take any election, or our democracy, for granted.
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