Democracy Freed

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamla Harris.

The Biden administration. The Biden-Harris administration.

It rolls off the tongue and into history.

Finally. Well, almost finally. There are still votes to count but as of this morning, Biden-Harris lead in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, and are expected to soon take the lead in Pennsylvania as mail-in votes are tabulated from heavy Black voter areas.

America’s long national nightmare will be over. We will get to the work that needs to done to repair the nation, our democracy, domestic and international trust, the economy, and of course, guard against and heal ourselves from the Covid-19 pandemic.

And we will dive into the voting demographics later in the week.

For now, we can collectively exhale and take a moment to hug, smile, cry, laugh, congratulate, and celebrate.

Celebrate in the American tradition – the good team won. The underdog won. The little team with a big heart, more compassion, and heaps of empathy and fair play, won.

Fair and square.

Democratic voters showed up and showed out. Millions voted by mail – the most in history, and as a rebuttal to administration attempts to slow and disrupt the US Postal Service, discourage voters, and attempt to do what they’ve done for four years: Lie, cheat and steal.

The dumb plot energized an already energized electorate, and those who did not vote by mail showed up in person at polling locations around the country and, especially in areas where Black people voted, brought chairs, snacks, water, music, drums, and celebrations as only Black Americans can do.

Black people once again showed the country and the world that our joy cannot be stolen.

Voter demographic information will be sliced and diced, analyzed and parsed, and social scientists will spend months and years discussing what we just witnessed.

Here is what I know: The Big Tent, the Rainbow Coalition, Hillary voters, Obama’s Si Se Puede voters, Jewish, Latinx, Afro-Latinx, Black folk from the Islands, young first time voters, Gen X, Boomers, white men and women, Native, LGBTQI, religious, and nonreligious, progressives, centrists, and never-trumpets, came together to oust the worst president in American history.

The Big Tent today should be celebrated and recognized for the hard work of winning an election with a life-long political insider and a Black and Asian woman from California.

Biden/Harris needed to be able to draw from all demographics needed to secure the presidency, and they did it in a style befitting their campaign which crisscrossed the land talking to all voters across every demographic, in cities, rural areas, colleges, factories, farms, and socially distanced parking lots.

Special mention to Black men who, despite intense recruitment from Trump, propaganda from Russia, and ignorance from a few Black entertainers, delivered millions of votes and the second highest demographic votes to Biden/Harris.

With so much focus on which Black men were not going to vote for Biden/Harris, we need to acknowledge the much maligned group as the second most loyal democrat voters.

But none are more deserving of appreciation and gratefulness than Black women, long the most loyal democratic voter.

Black women propelled Biden once the primaries hit South Carolina, and then they set their sights on helping decide who Biden would pick as his running mate. After an animated couple of months, Biden joyfully and gracefully chose California Senator Kamala Devi Harris – a Black and South Asian woman from Oakland, Ca.

A graduate of Howard University, Harris energized Biden’s ascending campaign by lighting a fundraising fire the likes of which had never been seen, and which funded a nationwide advertising and get out the vote focus that brought in each of the aforementioned demographic voters.

Kamala worked to earn the trust of Black women and all voters, showing off her knowledge, grasp of the issues, and fierce rebuttals to the lies of the GOP and Trump, and a woefully inadequate national news media.

And she showed off her unrestrained joy, laugh, smile, dancing and marching skills, while ignoring the naysayers who criticized her Black Woman Magic.

She is the embodiment of so much and to so many. Prayers from India were felt as much as the love and energy from her sorority sisters and the Divine Nine.

Vice President-elect Kamala’s infectious joy was matched by the calm and empathetic leadership of Joe Biden.

Biden campaigned as an American concerned about America and all its citizens. He displayed his empathy, warmth, inner fire, and ability to lead a nation thirsting for refreshing and country-saving normalcy to quench our collective angst.

Joe Biden the longtime Senator, the two-time loyal vice president to Barak Obama, the husband to Dr. Jill Biden, and widowed father of two boys who were far too young when their mother was taken in a car crash.

Joe Biden did what any good parent would do. He worked harder to ensure his boys had a good family home, support, and his presence.

Attack Joe Biden by attacking his family…. and you’ll feel Joe’s wrath – as the GOP and Trump found out.

America now enters the next phase of its growth and evolution. America 2.0 will require healing, repairing, learning, training, fixing, addressing, uncovering, and focused attention from all corners of the country.

Joe and Kamala are the man and woman of the new America that we all know can and will be the new and improved America.

The work begins anew but for now, we celebrate. Allow yourself to celebrate and feel good about what you have earned: A Democrat President and Vice President that we all can be proud of.

© 2020 by Myron J. Clifton. All Rights Reserved.

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