Elation

Today it has been declared that Joe Biden won the presidency. I see elation from many friends and voices on the internet and the news, relief. I feel that we have been saved from a hellish period of intense fighting and truth twisting. A period where the pandemic has been spreading out of control and the government was actually working against the people tasked to save lives and stem this virus. I feel very relieved. 

Thinking about the last four years I remember feeling anger and irritation at the President because of his treatment of refugees and people from Mexico who cross the border illegally. But other than this I had very little complaints. I hated his style and the persona he radiates, I did not think conservatives represented the Gospel values of caring for the poor, little, and lost. But I understood that this was their turn to govern and they will try their ideas on the country, fair enough. 

All this changed when Covid entered our lives in mid March. I saw the president scared and acting on it initially. I remember how his opponents just had him impeached and then this crisis hit. He presented Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, he had daily press conferences. But then I heard conservative voices slowly framing Covid-19 as an issue of individual rights, speaking against medical advice and using the well worn and tired conservative talk of personal freedom as the highest virtue. The president's view started to turn at that point, reopening and the rescue of the economy was the focus. Cases ballooned and the virus was spreading all over the country, we were the worst country in the world when it comes to pandemic response. And the White House was raising it's resistance to it's own medical advisers, towards the last days before the election the White House was ground Zero for the virus spread and the President himself and his family were infected. Yet Trump continued to ignore, minimize, mock the effects of this disease ravaging our country. 

This is why I feel relief, joy, hope at his removal. The last 2 months have been poisonous to our nation's well-being and I'm glad it's over. Like a cancer that has finally been removed. 

And how do the Christians respond? Bitterness, sour grapes, end time prophecies because a democrat is the President. I'm going to have to grapple with this as the Trump presidency winds down, what will evangelicals do at this point?