Oh my goodness! Was that an election or a blockbuster movie?
I went through a plethora of emotions, as election night turned into election week and one could only have wondered, if it would turn into an election month.
Now the 2020 election is over! I can relax until the next election in 2024.
As I followed the news broadcasts of the election, I felt like I was going through a roller-coaster of emotions which included apprehension, anticipation, trepidation, elation, desolation etc. I watched as day turned to night and night turned to day and there were times when I did not know the difference. I had my calculator by my side all the time... calculating and re-calculating as I obtained minute by minute information and figures from CNN.
Thank God it is over. Congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on your decisive win; 306 electoral college votes to Joe Biden and 232 electoral college votes to President Trump. Joe Biden also won the popular vote by a huge margin of over 5 million votes. Over 78 million people voted for Joe Biden as their choice for president and this figure is historic since it is the highest number of votes which any president has obtained in an election.
These figures are not the only historic aspect of this election. Since Joe Biden had the 'audacity' to elect Kamala Harris as his running mate, history has also been made in so many ways; first woman vice-president, first black vice-president, first Indian-American vice-president etc. I am really happy that the glass ceiling is shattered and there is no way that, the fragments of glass will be pieced together to create another glass ceiling. The pieces of shattered glass have been swept away and dumped in the bin. Now, the future looks brighter for women as light streams seamlessly through the damaged ceiling.
There is actually a vice-president elect who is a woman... This will take some time to really sink in. Who would have thought that in this year of the pandemic, when everything has a cloud of uncertainty hanging over it, women would finally see a silver lining on that cloud?
I will have to say a big thank you to Hillary Clinton for conceding graciously, when the figures indicated that she had lost the 2016 election. By conforming to the tradition, she also paved the way for Kamala Harris to be chosen as the running mate.
At this point I would like to go back to the night of 3rd November 2020. I just had to go to sleep when Florida was projected for President Trump and Joe Biden was losing in Ohio. This is because, according to the media, no one had moved to the White House without winning Florida. Also, no Republican had moved to the White House without winning Ohio.
The wall i.e. the map, seemed to be increasing with 'the color red.' It was as though the painter was distracted, so he kept dipping his paintbrush into the red paint bucket instead of the blue paint bucket. It was not looking too good for Joe Biden.
I thought when I woke up from my sleep or I should say night nap, I would find out that I had just been dreaming. Unfortunately, I woke up to the reality that it was not a dream. The numbers were trending in favor of 'the color red' i.e. President Trump. I had an instant headache and I kept reminding myself to 'Breathe.'
Then as the day progressed, to my delight, there was a glimmer of hope as the votes continued to be counted and the numbers favored Joe Biden. The tide had finally turned.
As I watched CNN, I had been wondering if all the 'Black Lives Matter' protests which erupted after the death of George Floyd and rippled through the world, had not translated into votes. In the end, it appears that they had and they were reflected in the votes in cities like Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Atlanta (Georgia), Detroit (Michigan) and Milwaukee (Wisconsin). #BlackLivesMatter
One positive thing about this pandemic is that, it necessitated an increase in the number of ways in which everyone could cast their votes; mail-in,'drop box etc. Hopefully, in the future these additional methods of voting will be maintained across all the States.
Since I have mentioned changes to the voting system, maybe it is also time to revisit using the Electoral College system to decide the winner of the presidential election. A saying which comes to mind is 'Life is simple but we complicate it.' Perhaps, by just using the methodology that the majority wins, will suffice in determining the winner. The additional layer of complexity which the Electoral College system provides may no longer be needed. After all, we only want to know who won the election and who did not win the election.
Now that it is over, the biggest lesson for me from this election is that, anything with an underlying motivation of dislike, will not succeed in the end. Congratulations once again to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris!
Kommentare