I think I’ve said this on the thread some time before, but one thing I’ve believed for the last few years is that one of the problems with following politics in the a Trump era is that we, both as individuals and as a society, have (for several overlapping reasons) not permitted ourselves to acknowledge Trump’s victory in 2016 for what it truly was: a literal trauma for every sane American, including many of the people who actually voted for him (not really believing that he would actually win). For the vast majority of Americans, it obliterated many of our deeply-held assumptions, in much the same way as, say, 9/11. But our political media couldn’t treat it that way, and neither could most people on their own.
Earlier today I was thinking about that, and about how a lot of the frustration and anxiety that we’ve all experienced, and watched others experience, over the last 24 hours stems from the fact that, whatever our theories on the polls or the electoral map or the timing of vote counts or whatever, what we were really hoping for (beyond obviously an end to the nightmare) was a moment of catharsis - the moment when the news networks called the 270th vote for Biden and we could all just let go, by ourselves and together, and let it all out and feel a bit safer again. This need, like so many other awful features of the Trump era, has intensified over the last 8 months. The lowest I got during quarantine was back in May or June, when I finally accepted that there would be no end, no magic moment when we could declare victory and feel like it was all worth it. We won’t get it now either - this election will drag on for a while, with everyone gradually accepting and acclimating to the reality of a Biden victory, and on some day over the next few weeks there will come a point where it becomes official; where a certain random state officially certifies its results and puts Biden over the top once and for all. But there won’t be any pomp and circumstance to it, and we‘ll never get that collective moment that we all need, even if we don’t know it or won’t admit it.
Anyway that’s what I was thinking about earlier. And then I saw this tweet and this picture,
and I laughed for five consecutive minutes. Legit tears rolling down my face. It’s perhaps my favorite picture that doesn’t involve at least one of my kids or Derek Jeter. I’m going to frame it and hang it where my TV used to be. The mob of Nazis that raised havoc in Charlottesville has reverted to their prior state as a half-dozen College Republican dorks. Feels like the sun finally peeking through the clouds.
