Saturday, around the country and indeed the world, people danced in the streets after our country's major news outlets called the presidential race for Joe Biden.
A monthly discussion group my wife and I are part of had scheduled a Covid-aware outdoor meeting for yesterday afternoon in the back yard of Russ and Delana Beaton in northeast Salem.
Laurel, my wife, did a little dance at one point.
But mostly the nine of us stood around a fire expertly started by Russ, when we weren't sitting around it. Here's photos of the mildly wild celebrating by a bunch of progressives who were thrilled that the Age of Trump had come to a screeching halt.
Though there had been showers earlier in the day, by our 2 pm start time the rain had stopped.
The sun even came out for a while, proving that Joe Biden's presidency will be marked by a radiant return of democracy, civility, and idealism to a nation that has suffered under Trump's mean-spirited authoritarianism for four long years.
Russ and Delana, shown here, thoughtfully provided some champagne and a non-alcoholic alternative for toasting purposes. Each of us got to say something about why we were happy with the election results.
I'm glad that we were able to have an in-person meeting on the Saturday after election day. Thank you Rain Gods! Getting together in this fashion seemed much preferable to a Zoom get-together, our backup plan, which lacks the intimacy and communal feeling of a physical face-to-face gathering.
Biden's election was a big deal for all of us, much more so than other elections.
The reason is obvious: no previous president has posed such a threat to American democracy. Trump is a wanna-be authoritarian, maybe even a dictator. If he had been re-elected, there would have been no bounds on his efforts to make the federal government a tool of his personal power.
Not surprisingly, post-election Trump is acting just as horribly as pre-election Trump. Even more so, in fact, since the Liar-in-Chief is asserting with zero evidence to back him up that the election was stolen from him. He can't say how, because there is no how to speak about.
Thus his pie-in-the-sky court cases are going to go exactly nowhere, as election law expert Marc Elias pithily points out.
Maureen Down, a New York Times opinion columnist, has this to say in her piece, "We Hereby Dump Trump."
We expected more of Donald Trump.
An epic, Jack Nicholson-in-the-Overlook-Hotel meltdown, not just Rose Garden-variety mewling. A conspiracy with grandiosity, not merely pathetic blathering about pointless lawsuits from his entitled children and oddballs Rudy Giuliani and Richard Grenell.
The president has had all this time to hatch a spidery plot to ruin democracy on the way out the door, and this is the best he can come up with?
The election has been stolen!
What’s your proof?
Because I’m losing.
At yesterday's discussion group meeting I talked some about the deliciously absurd press conference Rudy Giuliani held on Saturday at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia.
Yes, not the Four Seasons Hotel, but Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
The Independent (a United Kingdom publication) has a must-read story about this fiasco. Here's some excerpts from the beautifully written "I saw Donald Trump's presidency come crashing down at Four Seasons Total Landscaping."
It began, as all good 2020 capers do, with a tweet from the president of the United States. It ended with his personal lawyer in the parking lot of a landscaping company, struggling to be heard over a man in his underpants shouting about George Soros.
They say a star burns brightest just before it dies, and this was the Trump presidency in all its flaming glory.
...I arrived to see a media scrum around a chain link fence that led into the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping. The building itself was one-storey, with a neat lawn and a row of hedges at the front. It was in that part of town that every town has, where businesses which have no right being grouped together nonetheless gather due to one reason or another — usually the cheap rent.
Across the street from Four Seasons Total Landscaping was a crematorium. Next door to it was an adult book store with a bright yellow sign that displayed its offerings: DVDs and lotions, novelty gifts, viewing booths. It was called Fantasy Island. In retrospect, it was an omen of what was to come.
...Private security guards hired by the president’s lawyers began to call in media outlets by name so they could enter the parking lot. When a media outlet was called, the gathered Trump supporters booed those which they felt had been unfair to the president. “Washington Post”.. “Boooo.” “Fox News”.... “Boooooo!” “CNN” “BOOOOOOOO!”
This was an American pantomime.
In the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot the cameras were assembled, the sound levels checked, the pens were poised and the gates were closed. The world’s press waited for the evidence that would blow this big scam wide open. The sun shone brightly.
Then, out of nowhere, a journalist with a European accent announced the news: “CNN called the presidency for Biden!”
The assembled journalists were paralysed for a moment. Phones started to ring and calls were made. Some were given instructions to leave and started to do so.
Soon after, the sound of car horns honking and cheers in the street began to drift into the backlot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
...Just a few minutes later Rudy Giuliani appeared. This was the second press conference Mr Giuliani had called in Philadelphia in a matter of days, both to make unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud. The first took place at an airport hangar.
...Amid all the drama of the last 30 minutes, it appeared no one had told him that Joe Biden had been projected the winner of the election. A member of the press asked him how these lawsuits would overturn the call for the former vice president.
“Who was it called by?”
“All of them,” came the response.
Mr Giuliani took a moment before erupting in mock incredulity: “All the networks? Wow! All the networks!” He raised out his arms and looked to the sky, for a moment looking and sounding like Larry David doing a bit. But the wind had been sucked out of him. The smile had gone.
Comments