Today, Joe Biden goes from being the President-Elect to being the President. I’m still shocked that he won because historically an incumbent wins the election. But I’m so excited to have Biden as our President and to see what happens with this country. And I don’t think it’s a surprise that I’m glad that Donald Trump will not be our President anymore.
I’ve never really hid my unhappiness with him. He liked to spread half-truths (or complete lies) and found that dividing the country worked to his advantage. He didn’t see how to help the entire country but how to help himself and those in his inner circle. And yes, I did benefit from some of his tax cuts because I’m considered a business owner, but the benefits I personally got weren’t worth all the financial penalties other people I knew got. I’d rather things be much more equal (which would mean I owe money) than for my friends to owe extra money and for me to get some bad.
And his mishandling of the pandemic continues to make me mad. We have seen how other countries have gotten things under control. Or if they aren’t totally under control, they have a fraction of the cases and deaths that we have. If Trump hadn’t been talking for months about how this is all a hoax and discouraging ways we could stay safe, who knows how many lives could have been saved. Things didn’t have to be like this. And if we had politicians who were setting better examples for us, maybe we wouldn’t be in such bad shape a year into this.
And I know that with Biden being President, things won’t just change immediately (although some Republicans did claim that nobody would be talking about the pandemic after the election and it would miraculously end). But I do have hope that things will be turning around and getting better in the near future. I hope that we will have a better plan for vaccine distribution and more guidance on ways we can stay safe while we wait. So many countries got this under control without a vaccine, so maybe we will do the same and the vaccine will just be extra protection.
While I’m not really grateful for much about the Trump Presidency, there is one thing I am grateful for. Because of him running and understanding the risks 4 years ago, I became much more involved in politics. I don’t know if I would have been involved if another Republican was running. If Trump lost, I don’t know if I would have kept things up as much. But now, I have seen how politics is something I need to be involved in. I will not be unaware because something doesn’t personally affect me. I will not hide my political views to try to be polite. Being politically involved is something I feel like I have to do. I need to do it for everyone, not just the people in my life. And I have seen what happens if our elected leaders do not feel the same push to be working for everyone.
I hope to be more involved in the future. I know that I didn’t do as much as I wanted to in this past election. But I also have learned of more ways I can be involved in the future and I am on a lot of different email lists to be notified when there are opportunities for me. I want to take advantage of them as they come up and continue to be more and more involved.
Today, I’m celebrating our country having a new president. And yes, he is the candidate I voted for, but I also believe that he feels he needs to work for everyone. He is not going to divide the country into those who voted for him and those who didn’t. There may still be a division with people who believe he was fairly elected or not, but that division is not because of Biden but because of other politicians. And if they want the unity they claim they want to see, they know they need to let their followers that Biden is the president and that he was elected fairly. We cannot have unity until those who have worked hard to divide us make things right. And I don’t know if that will happen, but I hope it will. I am so sick with how some people have believed some extreme conspiracy theories and that they cannot see beyond it. I have people in my life who do believe this pandemic was created to get Trump removed from office (they don’t believe it matters that other countries were affected too). I know people who believe that somehow, Biden will be removed and Trump will be president again, even though that’s not how it works. I have tried to reason with them and explain how certain policies and rules work, but some people still won’t listen or believe that the rules have to be followed that way.
But I do have hope that in the future, some of those people will start to see what happened and that they were misled. I don’t think they will become Democrats or huge fans of Biden, but I do hope that they understand how he was elected (and not claiming it has to be fake because Trump had bigger crowds). I want there to still be a debate within the country, but not the violence and hate that we have seen recently. We don’t all have to agree on everything, but we need to agree that everyone deserves a voice and that our elected leaders represent everyone and not just those they voted for.
And hopefully, as I become more and more involved in politics, I will find ways to help bring things together and to get others involved, and trying to help this country heal from the past 4 years.
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