80. The election is over; the pandemic is not

Last night ended it. The months of divisiveness and acrimony that led up to the November vote, two months of lawsuits on behalf of the president, and the political posturing by those chasing his flame and electoral base all came to a strange end. There were heroes—those who physically protected the Capitol and our legislators, and those, like Pence and McConnell, who rose to the occasion and steered congressional bodies and the country back to a road of normalcy.  

Yesterday’s most important outcome might be the coming together of public leaders and bodies to work towards righting the country and addressing current crises. The Election has been the constant noise in the wheel of the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallouts. And the election has prevented us dealing with the thorny issues of systemic racism, sexism, and economic inequality that the pandemic has so dramatically exposed. 

 

In 1918, the Armistice that ended the bloody and destructive World War that had decimated a generation of Europeans and thrust the US into world affairs also frustrated recovery from the Spanish Flu. A “first wave” of that pandemic had followed troops from Kansas to England and the European front, and spread its death viruses (which we didn’t know were viral at the time) across the world. It then came home with the troops, and, with its second and third waves reaching into 1919, killed over 675,000 Americans—in a population of 103 million. Over half of the 116,000 Americans who died in the War were victims of the flu. 

 

Tragically, the War and relief at its end sent the country into a strange kind of denial; the celebration at war’s end overwhelmed the flu’s continuing death march. People hugged and kissed and celebrated on the streets, threw away their facemasks, and in general forgot the flu and let it play out its own deadly progress. 

 

The election season that has warped our national response to the current Covid-19 pandemic is now over. The strange and violent day in the capitol and the reconvening of Congress and the careful enunciation of votes, state-by-state, brought a collective sigh of relief. A chastened Vice President Pence handled ballots in measured tones, and results were announced to a relived nation. Once “objecting” senators sat on their hands.

 

The election is finally over, but not the work. Pence and Congress can look after the 25^th amendment and assess impeachment. Biden and a new team—and the rest of us—must now put the Pandemic behind us.

 

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