A quote by Dan Rather sums it up nicely.

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning when the breaking news came: enough votes had been counted to call the US presidential election for Joe Biden.

I followed the responses on Twitter, which I’d been pretty much avoiding since Election Day. I knew that doom scrolling Twitter or watching red and blue maps on TV or the web wasn’t going to change the results. It would just put me in the nervous, nail-biting state so much of America — and the world — was in.

So I waited.

Even on Friday, when a website I’d never heard of (and won’t link to here) called the election for Biden and was retweeted by so many of my Twitter friends, I refused to accept the results. As I told friends, I’m waiting for AP or NPR to call the results. Until then, I was not going to believe that either party had won.

So I really welcomed the news on Saturday morning. Not only would I stop hearing people complain about how long it was taking, but the candidates that could help us recover from the four-year nightmare of the Trump administration would be taking the reins. There was hope for America’s future after all.

Joy on Twitter — and Worldwide

I spent a lot of time on Twitter yesterday. Doomscrolling was over. Now it was joyscrolling. What else could I call it? So many happy people celebrating with tweets. And then sharing photos and videos of celebrations in the streets. Yes, people were actually dancing for joy in the streets of cities all over the world. And when photos and videos of celebrations in other countries started rolling in — fireworks in London, church bell pealing in Paris — I was almost brought to tears. The world had been watching and they were happy for us, happy that we’d used our democratic process to vote out a dangerous tyrant.

There was more of the same overnight and this morning.

Joyful tweets. Jokes about Trump. Jokes about Rudy Giuliani’s press conference in the back parking lot of a landscaping company next door to a porn shop. (WTF? Buy your souvenir t-shirt here; I did.) Tweets from people sharing their feelings about voting out a narcissistic, misogynist, failed businessman who should have died in obscurity after his stint as a reality TV star. (WTF are Trump supporters thinking?) Links to articles in newspapers and on websites about the ramifications of the results. Congratulation tweets and statements from world leaders glad to see that America might be getting back on the path to its world leader status.

And a tweet from Dan Rather with the simple observation that it felt good to be looking forward.

This pretty much says it all for me. Instead of having to worry about what Trump is going to say or do next to take America backwards into the 1950s or embarrass us on the world stage, we can look forward to a president who will help us get past the COVID-19 virus, rebuild our damaged economy, and get back into our previously held position as world leader. He’ll tackle America’s real problems — instead of promoting resorts and playing golf — such as our failures in health care, education, and environmentally friendly energy solutions. He’ll embrace science and scientists, putting his trust in them — as he should — to help us move forward in the technologies that were shunned by the Trump administration.

And maybe — just maybe — he’ll be able to stitch our divided nation back into UNITED States.

Honestly, I think this will be his biggest challenge. As long as Trump supporters and their sick, selfish, xenophobic mentality exists, the United States will remain divided.

Trump supporters don’t understand that what made America great in the first place was its melting pot of immigrants bringing in knowledge and new ways of thinking and willing to work hard to get ahead. They don’t even seem to remember that America is a nation of immigrants — ask any of the native people who were a lot better off before “white men” came. (And many thanks to the Navajo, Hopi, Yavapai, Tohono O’odham, and other Native American peoples in Arizona for helping to turn Arizona blue.)

And Trump supporters don’t understand that the country is strongest and best able to take the world stage as a leader when all of its people are housed, fed, healthy, and educated. Ironically, these people — many of whom are struggling to meet these basic needs in their own family — are okay with letting fulfillment of these needs come at a high price. Why should someone go into deep debt to get an education that will help them start life with good job or career? Why should someone have to struggle to cover the cost of health insurance, or forego medical treatment they can’t afford, or go into bankruptcy when a disease they can’t avoid — like cancer — needs treatment? Why is it that a budget junk food meal at a fast food joint is cheaper than a balanced meal prepared at home? Why are there so many homeless people — homeless veterans, for pete’s sake! — in the richest country in the world?

Why are we so far behind other first world nations in standard of living, happiness, health, education, and well-being?

No, I don’t think Joe Biden will fix all that. But I think he’ll try. And that’s a hell of a lot more than Trump did between his golf outings.

And I know Biden won’t stoke the same divisive hate that made Trump so popular among his small minded supporters.

Nope.

Yesterday, I finally took the Nope sticker off the back of my pickup truck. The sticker had been a Hillary Clinton campaign sticker and originally had her name below the yellow Nope image. I cut it off before putting the sticker on my truck right after the 2016 election.

Throughout the next four years, it got a lot of comments. Some rednecks in Arizona tried to start a fight with me and my friend Janet. I laughed at them. More recently, an older woman in the local Bi-Mart parking lot assured me that Trump would win. I told her she was an idiot if she voted for him and thoroughly enjoyed the rage that came over her as I drove away. In the past, I’ve been asked by Trump supporters what the sticker means; my standard response is, “Look closely and figure out for yourself.” Their reaction when the light comes on is priceless.

Other folks really liked the sticker. I think I got more positive comments over the years than negative ones.

But I took it off yesterday — and was actually quite pleased at how easily it peeled away from the glass. Why? Well, I honestly believe that some Trump supporters will be out for blood and I don’t want to be their target. It’s the same reason so many Biden supporters didn’t put a sign on their lawn. When you live or travel in a red area, you need to be careful.

I don’t need to label myself one way or another. After all, I’m really not supporting a candidate. I’m supporting my country, the United States of America.

All Americans should be doing the same.