WINNER:  DEMOCRACY

6 November, 2020. 6:00 a.m. It is just a matter of time before the news outlets declare Biden the winner of the presidential election of 2020. As of this moment, there are four states to be determined, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Biden is ahead in three and about to take the lead in the fourth (PA). It is all but certain that Biden will win a majority in the Electoral College and become the next president of the United States.

So, here is my take on what the election of 2020 means:

---The Great Democratic Revolution of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has prevailed over the challenge from the counter-revolution. The counter staged a fierce attack in the last four years but it is now clear that this attack was rejected by the American people.

---The American people arose in unprecedented numbers to defend democracy. Percentage wise, this election saw the largest turn out of voters in over a century. Biden is winning 4m votes more than Trump.

---The American people rejected the authoritarianism of Trump. 

---The faustian bargain between Trump and the Republican Party has collapsed. As it turns out, in retrospect, it was not very strong. In the past few days, Trump has railed out against democracy crying fraud and crime. Not a single Republican leader has agreed with him. The Republicans, seeing his defeat, have abandoned him. End of bargain.

---The coup d'état, or attempted coup, turned out to be insignificant. Trump and his aides have mounted numerous lawsuits to change the votes in their favor, but not a single suit has any chance of succeeding. They are all frivolous. As of this moment, it is clear that the courts will not determine the outcome of the election. This will not be a replay of 2000. There will be no coup.

---There was no "blue wave." In fact, the Republicans won a handful of seats from Dems in the House of Representatives (as Charleston). The Reps will keep a majority in the Senate. There was little change "down ballot" as in the state legislatures. This tells us the voters rejected Trump but not his allies, the Republican Party. We will now keep a two-party government.

---With a divided government (Dems=president and HR; Reps=Senate and SCOTUS), we can expect one of two paths, compromise or obstruction. In the 1980's and 1990's, the divided governments worked by compromise. In the last six years of Obama (2010-2016), the divided government turned into obstruction. Republicans blocked every important initiative of Obama and the Democrats. It remains to be seen whether the Republicans, now free of Trump's bullying and the faustian bargain, will turn to compromise or obstruction.

---One huge force demanding compromise is the common enemy of the hour, the coronavirus. It is forcing a unity on the nation. The first problem the new administration will confront is how to defeat, or mitigate, the pandemic.

A word to my family members and friends who voted for Trump and are now disappointed at the outcome of the election. Keep the big picture. We are the greatest democratic republic in the history of the world. We got this way by trusting each other to act in the best interest of the individual and of the common good. None of us is perfect. None of us has all the answers. We are at our best when we listen to each other, when we hear and value what others have to say. Democracy is not easy. It is the worst system of government ever invented except for all the rest. We are all in this together. Let us not allow fear of the other to poison the well.

Finally, as a student of history, I think we all need to go back to the big picture of the sweep of history in contemporary America. The soaring news of the hour is that The Great Democratic Revolution has prevailed over an upsurging challenge of anti-democratic reaction. This means America will go on evolving a more perfect union of human rights for all people in our highly diverse society. We just survived a very serious threat to the GDR in Trump. The important point is that the people stood up for democracy and rejected the reactionary threat to it. And, if one looks all around, one will see here and there how the GDR goes on in our daily lives. 

Just a couple of small examples of how democracy continues:  In one of the most conservative states in America, Alabama, local authorities have just approved a new charter school for LGBTQ students. It is to be a "safe space" for middle and high schoolers who are homosexual. Find an article about this here . In another example, in yet another of the most conservative places in America, Mississippi, voters approved 74%-26%, medicinal marijuana, even after most of the establishment of the state campaigned against it. The fact that the expansion of human rights is going on in the most conservative states in America is testament to the prevailing power of democracy in our lives. And, that is the big picture that we should take away from the election of 2020.

Democracy was the big winner of the election of 2020, and for that reason, I am celebrating today. Peace.