We’re Not Done Yet: The Biden/Harris Victory Is Only The Beginning

It’s important that I warn you that this post might burst your bubble. It’s not my intention to be a ‘party pooper’, but I’m also a realist and I feel there are some important things to address. I’m going to talk about my skepticism, the problems I see that invoke this state of mind, what each of us can do (and, in a way we must do), and my hopes. Stay with me. I promise I won’t let you down.

The other night I sat in bed with my beloved, watching the Biden/Harris victory speeches. I watched all of the unity in the audience. The diverse group of celebrants gathered together with excitement, peace, hope, relief, gratitude, and pride. I wanted to feel like they did, but what I felt was something else.

Don’t get me wrong — I feel a lot of the same about the direction things seem to be going. I would love to believe that the last four years have been a wake-up call for everyone and that 2020 was a Divine Intervention that showed all of us the worst parts of ourselves, others, and the weaknesses in our systems locally and globally so that we could see them and address them individually, and collectively. My concerns, however, are with the battles ahead that include legal challenges Trump’s people are actively engaging in, as well as the mindsets of the masses that swore their fealty to him, his dangerous ideologies, and causes.

On the one hand, we may have won this war, but as history has taught us in the very recent past, this does not mean the fight is over… or that we actually did win at all. And whether or not we did win this one and this victory holds, the United States has become the antithesis of its name. We are now the extremely divided citizens of a dying and polarized empire that is going to fight for its life. I don’t just mean the Trump ‘empire’… I mean the nation that was founded on genocide, slavery, theft, corruption, white supremacy, global domination, and a culture of entitled consumers that destroy everything they touch. Yes, even you.

There is a lot of transformation and healing left to do that will outlive any of the next few presidential cycles. We have been staring fascism in its raging eyes, and far too many people didn’t even realize that this is what they were seeing or becoming. What’s even worse is that we have a frightening number of ‘Americans’ that do know and are willingly supporting it, showing up in massive numbers touting their guns, racist flags & symbology, have willingly antagonized and attempted to sabotage peaceful anti-racism protestors, have plotted horrendous acts of violence against others (including a female governer and people working at a ballot counting site), and have adopted a cult conspiracy that is, quite literally, recycled nazi propaganda that several politicians used in their campaigns.

To think that this election victory, assuming there isn’t a full blown coup, means we are now beyond all of this, is foolish. It might mean that a majority disagrees with fascism and wishes to live in a country absent of racism, but it does not mean it goes away without our continued efforts to fight all of the subtle programming in ourselves and the overt system that perpetrates it. This has all revealed and highlighted just how much work there is to be done on a systemic basis. This is not an attempt to deny the vast amount of amazing results that have occured with so many progressive people of color and openly queer individuals winning their elected positions, but an encouragement and reminder to keep going.

I understand that many people feel overwhelmed and don’t know how or where to start, so I’m including some ideas on what you can do to ensure systemic transformation continues. Remember, doing anything, no matter how small it is, makes a difference and adds more pebbles to the rippling ponds of change that can eventually become a tsunami of transformation.

• Get involved with the RepresentUs movement. Our system is profoundly impacted by corruption, massive lobbying and profiteering in our mass incarceration system that makes us a pariah of the world, corporate PACS such as ALEC that dictate legislature — write laws — for self serving profits, and a deeply flawed voting system that is marked as failing and endangered by global watchdog groups. RepresentUs is addressing all of this and doing so in a very sustainable way that is proving its impact by working within the system to transform the system. Even better, there’s a position for everyone in the movement, regardless of the level of participation you have the ability to give.
• Listen to the activist voices of the BIPOC and LGBQTIA+ communities. And I do mean to really listen. Those of us that have not lived their experiences cannot argue their experiences, compare our own, or claim to have the answers. Listen to what they say, their perspectives, and what it is that they need from us right now.
• Continue to address your own biases and deprogram your mind. From our families to the media we consume, we have been consistently flooded with subtle programming of white supremacy as a generational torch to bear. It has become so deeply engrained in our society, that even peope of color become racist against other people of color in really heartbreaking ways. Instead of asking people of color to do more emotional labor teaching you, take the steps to educate yourself with approved reading lists, taking steps to assist the BIPOC community, and being aware of all the forms of diversity we need to protect and defend from white supremacy (which can include religious programming).
• While racism and other forms of discrimination and prejudice are prominent in our minds at the moment, we cannot avoid the topics of the environment and animal welfare. While you can find a lot of deniers in our so called leadership that allow corporate predators to dictate our mitigation actions as a country, we cannot turn a blind eye to the very pressing and iminent issues with our environment. Our lives literally depend on it, along with the lives of millions of innocent species.
• Work to actively build your media literacy so you can rationally process what we are being inundated with and see through the rhetoric, lies, and manipulation to get to the facts and truths of situations.
• Stay active in a very diligent way. Remember that it’s not just about the major elections, but what happens between them, and all the work it takes to get initiatives on the ballot and keep your representatives informed of what their constituents want from them.
• Learn how to be patient and think in long term results, as opposed to instant gratification. We commonly say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it did burn in one. While this is a diluted ‘truth’, it diminishes the amount of time it took for Rome to actually lose it’s power, let alone all that had occurred to get to that point, and for several centuries people still tried to defend and preserve it.

We can do this. I believe in our ability to do so. I do believe that, generally speaking, humans have more commonalities than truly divisive differences. Most of our division in the USA and as a world at large has been fabricated. I still believe that a world of peace, equity, equality, justice, and prosperity for all is possible if we work in smart and intelligent ways. But, even if you are one that believes in the coming return of some messiah, you cannot deny all of their messages about how we should be in our activism and choices. This isn’t about preaching… it’s about the very real work we need to do TOGETHER.

If you liked this article please don’t forget to give it a ‘clap’ below, and I’m always grateful for financial gestures of gratitude for my writing. ❤️