Editorial: President-elect Biden and the politics of hope
We know friends who broke down in tears Saturday morning at news of Joe Biden's election as the 46th president of the United States, such was the sense of relief they felt.
We know women and people of color who felt personally touched by the momentous glass-ceiling significance of Kamala Harris' election as vice president.
We heard horns honking Saturday afternoon in the increasingly blue suburbs.
To the victors goes the joy. It is so always and no more so than this year.
The election of any president and vice president is historic, of course.
And it is hard to say that this year's election was any more historic than the stunning elections of the first African-American president in 2008 or the first private citizen to win the White House in 2016.
But rankings aside, the election of Biden-Harris was hugely historic to be sure, the kind of event you will describe to your children and grandchildren years from now.
It is fitting, you might say, for 2020, the year when historic moments have seemed to leap out at us at every turn.
In electing Biden and Harris, the country elected hope.
As a nation, we long for normalcy, we long for unity, we long for justice and dignity. We long for an end to the endless turmoil and the destructive hatreds.
Biden was elected because so many of us were exhausted from being battered each morning by another angry tweet.
Biden was elected because so many of us were weary of policy being directed by fantasy and impulse rather than by facts and science.
Biden was elected because so many of us feared the politics of division was threatening the health of the republic.
Donald Trump's false claims of a mythical widespread voter fraud represent the worst of his presidency. They are a sad parody of his disregard for the truth and ultimately of his disrespect for the public he would wish to serve. He thinks we're all gullible enough to believe anything he says, no matter how far-fetched, as long as he repeats it often enough.
This is the governance the nation escapes with the election of Joe Biden.
But make no mistake. This election was no repudiation of Trump or Trumpism. More than 70 million people cast ballots in his favor.
Those voters are not among the joyful victors today. Those voters are among the widely unheard and frequently discounted.
“I'm celebrating, but I know a lot of people aren't,” Senator Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates tweeted Saturday. “So many Trump voters are also working families and believed that he would improve their lives. We must see that they are hurting and fight attempts to divide us as we work to rebuild our beloved nation.”
Hear those voices, President Biden. Hear us all.
Bring us together.