TIME TO BREATHE--BUT ONLY THAT!

 It is done.
Democracy in this country will continue. Biden and Harris have been declared the victors. This is a time to take a breath, offer up prayers of thanks and maybe whoop it up a bit in celebration. What it is not time for is to pat ourselves on the back and reaffirm American Exceptionalism.
We came hellishly close to killing our own democracy with our inattention, selfishness, sloth and racial paranoia. This is an eleventh-hour save we've just pulled off and which we owe in large part to our fellow citizens with skins darker than the unbaked dough shade which many of us show on our faces!
Had we been the only voters, democracy would have been a corpse after this election! To say that it is shame and disgrace to us and our country that the margin was so close--not to mention that the Repiglicans have actually gained seats in the House (although, thankfully, we still hold the majority), we have yet to flip any state houses and that the Greedy Oilmen's Party may well hold the Senate by the skin of Massa Moscow Mitch's wattles--is to understate the case to an almost absurd degree! If we are serious about democracy and freedom, this election should have been a blowout for the Democrats at all levels from presidential down to local! That it was a such a squeaker shows all too clearly that too many of us care only for our own liberties and, above all, the size of our wallets! Even while those who, were they paid higher than starvation wages, might have a chance to add to our civic strength, have to worry about money nonstop in order to keep on eating! That this happens in the richest country in human history is another shame and disgrace to us, but more of that in another post later.
Perhaps worst of all, in this election when we all knew (?) the evil of the Trumpery before us, more of us voted for this incubus than four years ago! And only enough Suburban White Women voted for Biden/Harris to put them over the top! OK, we should be grateful to all those who made this save. But a greater percentage of white women--52% then, 55% NOW--actually voted for Donald Pussygrabber this time around! My innards gurgle even as I type this!!
As I write, Massa Moscow Mitch is plotting to not even allow Biden the cabinet members he wants! Joe, if you will take a humble man's advice, no more bipartisan b.s., or as little of it as might be absolutely necessary. We want to be opponents, not enemies, but I defy you to find me a Repiglican officeholder who makes that anything but a vicious lie and acts with anything but fascistic bad faith!
I mean it, Joe: I am absolutely serious. I'm a straight (and straightly married) aging second-generation Anglo-Saxon race traitor who has watched politics since he was almost twelve. I started following politics during the 1968 campaign and have never stopped doing so.
Our 'opponents' care only for power and money and care nothing--repeat, NOTHING--for democracy, the rule of law, freedom, equality or even for the best in our country. Make any conciliatory gestures short and arrange them so that their rejection will tell you and Kamala all y'all need to know about these political gangsters!
I think it might be time for me to take more than a few breaths. Sighs of relief from the Peanut Gallery. But this is time for only that much relaxation. We have lots of hard work ahead to strengthen and expand democracy with a pan-racial coalition of working people as a cornerstone of it and of the Green New Deal. So let's be grateful now as we breathe, pray, make a little whoopee and gird our loins for the heard struggle against powerful and unscrupulous enemies (that is how they see themselves and us) which awaits us. We palefaces still have plenty of waking up to do!