Nov 4, 2020

The agonizing wait for resolution in the presidential contest dragged on as the Reporter went to press on Wednesday morning. As of this hour, it remains unclear if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will prevail over Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Several swing states— Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina— still have millions of votes to count.

They must be allowed to count them.

In the early morning hours, from the White House, the president proclaimed— falsely— that he was the winner in several of the states that are too close to call. Trump is following through on what he said he would do: Claim victory, even if it were not his to claim. Worse, he’s casting efforts to continue counting ballots that were mailed in as some form of fraud.

“Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight. And a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it,” Trump said.

It’s a predictably pathetic approach for this consummate conman, who seeks to sow doubt and further divide a deeply fractured, wounded republic. 

We must not take the bait. What’s needed now— at this critical moment— is calm, patience, and perseverance.

Take stock of what we have that’s good in our community: Bostonians, at least, woke up in a city that flatly rejected this outrageously bad president and his enablers. The heaviest voter turnout yesterday morning— by percentage—was at a precinct in Ward 14 near the Dorchester-Mattapan line on Norfolk Street where 250 people— roughly 22 percent of those eligible— visited Metropolitan Baptist Church, the polling site, between 7-9 a.m. Rep. Russell Holmes said the high turnout there was “both cultural and lack of trust.”

“Many Black people want the experience of voting on Election Day and we trust seeing our ballots going in the machines as normal.  It’s a tradition that respects our history and struggle,” he said.

If Biden unseats Trump — and that remains a big “if” as of this writing – it will be because Black Americans in all corners of the nation— from Mattapan to Minneapolis, from Dorchester to Detroit— can be counted on as the Democrats’ stalwart allies. 

Look at Biden-Harris ticket’s performance in Mattapan’s nearly-all-Black precincts. The Democrats won the ones at Mildred Avenue and Groveland Senior Center and the Mattahunt School with more than 90 percent of the vote. 

These are the sorts of margins that we have to rely on to win the White House because too many white Americans— including many in our own backyard— are low-key Trumpists at heart. They’re haters. There’s no other way to describe them after watching this president in action for four years.

Biden and Harris may still win, but, no matter what, this election has shown how dangerously off track we are as a nation. 

Large proportions of our fellow Americans— having seen all the same evidence that you and I have — still support a person who props up white supremacists and big-ups bigots. A president who smears scientists and the doctors who have spent the year saving whatever lives they can from a virus that he’s allowed to rampage through all 50 states. A president who promotes bat-shit crazy conspiracy theories, coddles dictators, and dismisses our own fighting soldiers as suckers and losers.

And still, after all that, he’s the presidential pick of a rational human being? 

Tuesday made it very clear: Trumpism won’t be stamped out when this bozo is broomed out of the Oval Office. Sadly, it’s here to stay.

 – Bill Forry
    Boston Irish  Editor