This is not the blog I was ready to publish, but it is the blog I want to publish, indeed, need to.
That’s because I feel excited about Joe Biden choosing Kamala Harris as his running-mate far beyond anything I had anticipated. What is more, I am excited about how excited others are about it.
It’s been fun to read Facebook comments, twitter feeds, and listen to so many interviews of people who cannot contain their excitement. Joy Reid of
MSNBC was absolutely giddy yesterday when the news broke.
What a great day for America, historic in its substance and symbolism, both of which have lifted the spirits of everyone who cares about this country.
We needed that.
Before yesterday Michelle Obama had let the cat out of the bag for many people when she said in her podcast that she was suffering from what she called “low-grade depression,” rooted, in “the pandemic, race relations following the wake of George Floyd’s death, and the turmoil of the current presidential administration.”
I don’t know what “low-grade depression” is exactly, but intuitively I know what she wasfelt talking about. I think all of us do.
It came up last weekend in a discussion among members of a zoom group I participate in on Sunday mornings. Most of them said they feel like Michelle said she felt, like there is a darkness hanging over the nation that feels very depressing.
I think this is how most anti-Trump Americans have been feeling lately, wishing the election was now and we could get this thing over with.
And then yesterday happened.
Our collective emotional low didn’t evaporate, but it was lifted more than a little when the news of Biden’s choice broke. It felt as if the sun had broken through dark clouds.
Instantly everything about the election changed. We went from being determined to vote against Donald Trump to being excited about voting FOR a Biden-Harris ticket. And for good reason.
Beyond the abject corruption and sheer incompetence of the Trump administration, a Trump-Pence ticket points backward to a day now gone that Republicans want to bring back.
A Biden-Harris ticket points to the future, affirming what our nation can still become under new leadership that will unite us, holding up an image of the best in us, and leading us to do what needs to be done to reclaim the respect in the world we have lost.
I don’t remember when I have witnessed this level of enthusiasm for a Democratic ticket this soon
But here’s the thing. It is only the beginning.
As good as this moment feels, and it feels very, very good, imagine how we are going to feel when Joe Biden is elected President and Kamala Harris is elected Vice-President.
In the words of an old hymn, “what a day of rejoicing that will be.”
Our feet are not going to touch the ground for a while when we experience the exhilaration that moment will bring.
I think about this election all the time, but not once have I anticipated the sheer joy of what I felt yesterday, what I feel today, and what we are all celebrating as a new day in our and for our country has dawned.
Oh, my goodness, as I think about it, I realize now that what happened yesterday was the beginning of Democrats actually making America great again.
How sweet it is!
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