Democracy and Drama

 Today America got a new President Elect. It was also 4 days after Election Day. That means for four days the nation held its collective breath. Emotions ran high no matter which candidate you supported. It was also the day my son watched the result of an election he cast his vote in.

My immediate family supports Joe Biden, the President Elect. The dumbstruck despair we experienced four years ago has been replaced by equal amounts of joy and relief. It has not been an easy journey.

It was not easy being a Biden supporter in my world. If there are other Biden supporters in my church, I don’t know who they are. My two best friends, my squad, are both Trump supporters. My extended family on both sides are Trump supporters. I am well acquainted with the sweaty, stomach churning physical reaction to people I care about spouting the “virtues” of Donald Trump. My mouth always stayed quiet, the people pleaser in me eschewing debate. Only at home could my true heart and feelings come out.  

I am not sure when my hatred for Trump came into play. I was disgusted before the election in 2016 by his  treatment of people. As the wife of a disabled man, I watched him make fun of the disabled. As a woman, I heard him admit to using them as sex objects. As an overweight woman I heard him call women like me “pigs.”  As the granddaughter of. POW I heard him equate being a captured soldier to being substandard. As a Christian I saw him autograph Bibles and call himself the Chosen One as he tear gassed people for a. Photo Op with an upside down Bible. He can’t quote a favorite Bible verse, but went on the March for Life.  He claims to support life yet rips children from their parents in a strange land after coming for safety and mercy.  

I have watched the country lose sight of kindness and putting others first. We started acting like a class of detention students without a teacher in the room. It became the norm to complain, to be angry, to tell people what ugliness lives in your heart. 

Then Covid. I did not work for two months, and even though I still got paid, I was afraid, I was worried, I was full of anxiety. I was afraid of my mother getting sick. Of me getting sick. I needed reassurance. I needed people to work together to beat back the beast. I didn’t get that. I got more complaining, people refusing to stop partying, people refusing to wear masks. And it came down from the President.

So now I hope things will change. Today the winds feel like they have shifted and I hope it continues.  I pray the Lord’s will be done and our land begins to heal. 

God bless America.