The Day We Defeated a Dictator

 

This little bear from 2016 wanted to dance too when Dems won today in 2020.   It's been a long four years.

Miss you, Hillary Rodham Clinton! If you had won in 2016, Heather Heier (d. Charlottesville, Aug. 12, 2017) and 250,000 other Americans would still be alive. 

President Hillary R. Clinton would have taken proper steps to stop Covid-19 before it spread so widely in the US.

Van Jones expresses the grief and fear so many Americans have been feeling for four years.

These photos were all taken on Saturday, November 7, 2020, the day Americans defeated the man who succeeded in intimidating so many people from immigrant families to US senators.

8:26 am - Pennsylvania declared that Joe Biden was the winner of that state's electoral votes, bringing Biden's total from 264 to 284 in the Electoral College.

News organizations began making the call so long postponed: "Joe Biden is our President-Elect."

I rushed outside to ring bells and wave the flag that had been flying near my front door.

Shannon and Michael across the street came out to celebrate.

The neighbor kids next door had been walking their dog with their mother, but soon they emerged in red, white and blue to dance and cheer.

They reported that other houses on nearby blocks had also become centers of mini-block parties.

I began calling family and friends, waking many of them up.

Then I went for a jog on the beach, but tremendous winds had attacked the summer's accumulation of sand and created 9 foot cliffs on Santa Monica's wide flat beach.

The colors red, white, and blue were everywhere.

As the sun started to dip beneath the horizon, I walked the dogs while waving a flag 

and wearing a hat that said "Make Tacos Great Again."

I heard honking from major streets, and a few cars began honking when they saw me and the dogs with a flag.  I guess we were a parade.  

A red convertible drove by honking with women waving and holding signs: 

"Ciao, Cheeto" and  "8 years."

Spontaneous celebration broke out everywhere, from my neighborhood 

to West Hollywood 

to Times Square in New York City 

to Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

In London, fireworks lit the sky.

In Paris, cathedral bells rang.  

President Emmanuel Macron said,

"Welcome back, America!"

Stephen Colbert preaches it, abandons monologue

Thank you, Stephen Colbert, for calling on Republican senators and other Republicans to demand that Trump:

accept the voice of the people, 

concede that Biden won the election, and 

set in motion a peaceful transition.

"Qui tacet, consentire," he quotes.

Whoever is silent, that person consents.

This weird feeling

Red, white, and blue... and pride.

I fly the flag on Election Day--or all week if I feel like it. 

Not on the Fourth of July. I don't really like bombs bursting in air, especially if the US is dropping bombs on some country somewhere.

I glanced at my flag as I walked out of the house this afternoon and felt this weird feeling. Pride? 

Yes, I realized with amazement.  I feel proud to be an American.

For all our flaws, still we defeated fascism.

Now all we have to do is tackle COVID-19. 

And racism. Oh, and the environment. And...

May take a few years.