The Tortoise and The Hare

I’m not sure how the rest of the American public is feeling right now, but I’m guessing half the population is relieved while the other half is disappointed. This election has been going on for nearly 2 years, and besides being incredibly redundant and boring, the whole process has been a waste of time, resources, and money (Do we really need 2 years to elect a president?). Stupid me thought that come November 3rd, the process would end but it wasn’t until yesterday, November 7th that a winner – Joe Biden – was finally announced.  

Over the past several days, I’ve watched the results pour in and it seemed to be like a race between a tortoise (Joe Biden) and a hare (Donald Trump) – no pun intended with regards to Trump’s hair.  The Donald burst out of the box on Tuesday with most of his supporters going to the polls to vote (in part because he told his supporters to vote in person). And, you have to hand it to him, he convinced 70 million people to vote for him.  That’s pretty incredible and makes me feel like maybe I’m missing something so I started watching Fox News to try and understand why this man has so much support (I still haven’t figured it out but I’m trying).

Then, there is Joe Biden, whose support was also evident at the polls, but not until the mail in ballots were counted (in contrast to Trump, Biden urged his voters to vote by mail during this pandemic). Biden started to slowly whittle away at Trumps lead so that by Friday night, Biden was ahead in the states (Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania) that would give either candidate enough electoral votes to win the election.  I couldn’t help but think about one of my favorite childhood books:  The Tortoise and the Hare because that’s what the candidates remind me of: Mr. Slow and Deliberate versus Mr. Fast and Impulsive.

I don’t know too many people who are really happy with either candidate (although there were a lot of people dancing in the streets last night). This election seemed more like a vote for Trump and against socialism (God knows why because what do Republicans think Medicare, Social Security, and subsidies are?) and against closing down the country – or a vote against Trump and the science deniers, instead of a vote for what unites us, which isn’t much these day. But, after Biden’s unifying speech last night where he pledged to cross the aisle and stop demonizing opponents, I have hope that more time will be spent on fixing what’s wrong rather than dividing the masses.