Godspeed, Joe.

We have a new chief executive. Joe Biden is the 46th President in our country’s short 244 year history. It took a while for the verdict to arrive, but it finally has. Many of you are elated, others are disappointed, even others apoplectic. As of this hour, five days after the election, there has been very little in the way of violence, so far making my apprehension from November 2nd’s post seem overwrought. Thank God. What follows are my disjointed thoughts about everything that has happened since Election Day, in no particular order of significance.

-  I watched a bit of the Biden-Harris acceptance speech thing last night. There were many images of people in various stages of emotional rapture, tears flowed from some like water. Other faces beamed with what can only be described as ecstasy. I have seen images from the other side in recent days as well, full of gravely downcast faces etched with pain and disappointment mixed in with the occasional image of an angry face screwed up in spittle-spewing rage. I see the images and recall similar ones from previous elections and remain completely puzzled by it all. If I understand the whole privilege-check movement, this is where I should admit how lucky I am to feel so secure in life that I don’t have to worry about mere politics. The problem with that is...its not true. My life, my livelihood, even my future is indeed impacted by whichever party is running the country and whoever is in the White House. So, yes, I do have a stake in who wins and who loses. But for the life of me I can’t imagine ever being moved to tears or spurred on to ecstasy by the election of...anyone. Don’t misunderstand, I do not mean to disparage those who do, it’s just not something that I can imagine. I mean...its like...politics. If I were ever to write an autobiography, I can’t imagine referencing a single politician in my lifetime as someone who made even the slightest difference in how my life turned out. Credit for whatever accomplishments were worthy enough to mention would be spread around to many, many people, but not a single politician. Blame for my many missteps would fall almost exclusively on myself for some of the mind-numbing bonehead decisions I made along the way. Again, I needed no help from the Democratic or Republican parties on that score either. I simply cannot summon the depth of emotional attachment that the partisans bring to these elections. 

-  It hasn’t surprised me, nor should it have surprised anyone else that the current President has claimed that massive voter fraud has cost him re-election, and not just the cold mathematics of 4 million votes. He persists in his years long claim that the fix was in and thousands of volunteers throughout the country have conspired to not count his votes and double count Biden’s vote...or something. So far no evidence has been produced to demonstrate how these cheaters pulled all this off. I doubt it ever will, because the fact of the vote stealing isn’t nearly as important as the accusation of the vote stealing. This fresh new conspiracy theory will never die as long as I live, evidence or no evidence. People will make millions writing books about it. Someone will give it an iconic name like Mail-Gate, and it will end up being the 21st century’s grassy knoll/ second shooter boondoggle.

-  Joe Biden winds up being just the second Democrat I have voted for on the Presidential level. I’m not thrilled about that fact. I am fully aware that his party (if not him) is opposed to me on many issues facing the country. I suffer no illusions when it comes to the real damage that some of the more radical parts of the far left agenda could do to the finances and prosperity of the country. However, I have known all about Joe Biden for 47 years now. Although he has been almost comically wrong about a whole host of things in his interminable career, Joe Biden is not by any reasonable definition a leftist. For most of his time in public service he has been a decidedly unserious man who’s one great gift has always been making friends and working out compromise. One of his friends from his time in the Senate was...Mitch McConnel. The best case scenario is that his propensity for wheeling and dealing over a game of poker and bourbon with old friends in the Senate will forge some actual, you know, legislation that will do the country some good. The much thinner majority that his party holds in the House and a deadlocked Senate might actually produce some humility. Maybe with the removal from the scene of Trump’s epic toxicity, people in government will be just slightly more trusting of one another. On the other hand, Biden could end up being the Manchurian candidate some on the right have claimed him to be. This is, after all, 2020.

-  Not long after the election I started noticing people on Facebook talking about something called Parler. It is advertised as a Facebook alternative for Conservatives who want no more of Mark Zuckerberg’s censorship. Pam was curious so she visited their website and sent me this summary which she found at the bottom of the page:

I’m all for “moderating my world”. Who wouldn’t be in 2020? But a closer inspection reveals that what this amounts to is exactly what The Social Dilemma warns about...let’s all cordon ourselves off from anyone who might disagree with us. Let’s all erect our own truth wall and block anyone who might have a different take. My gut instinct says that this is the very definition of...snowflakes. On the other hand, maybe it’s just as well. Nobody convinces anyone of anything on Facebook anyway, so why not just flee to the ideologically calmer waters of a place that encourages people to “do your own shadow-banning!”

-  A lesser discussed consequence of this election needs to be shared to my readers, and that is the happy fact that after a four year absence, dogs will once again roam the halls of the West Wing. I believe that Joe Biden has German Shepherds, not my favorite breed, but a vast, immeasurable improvement over nothing. In addition, one of Biden’s Shepherds is a rescue, another White House first.



-  Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia became the site of a press conference by President Trump’s legal team at literally the exact moment that all major networks declared Joe Biden the winner of the election. Absolutely, positively only in America...

- Tomorrow morning, all of us will wake up, take a shower, grab some breakfast and head off to work, exactly like we did before Election Day. Some of you will have a little extra spring in your step. Some will not. Some of my favorite people on this planet voted for the other guy. I am proud to say that I have not lost a single friend over this contest...at least before this post! Hopefully it’s still true.

- I wish our new President every success. I pray that his health will be able to hold up against the relentless demands of his office. I have my doubts which means that I must pray for him even harder. Although I can think of at least a dozen democrats who would probably make a better President, none of them won. Joe’s the guy. He’s my President now, like it or not. Godspeed, Joe.