Finally, after it seems like a lifetime of waiting (when really it was only a couple of days), we found out the results of the election, and it turned out in Joe Biden’s favor. Immediately, videos and photos filled my social media feed of people celebrating his victory and the change that it will bring, but at the same time, under these posts, people were criticizing the celebrations because we “settled for Biden” initially–isn’t this what we wanted?
I find this view extremely harmful because while Biden might have not been the ideal candidate for many people, his election signals so much positivity to come and change. First of all, Trump will no longer be president. For me, this is a HUGE positive because, ignoring all of his views, the last four years have been nothing short of exhausting and frustrating. In short, there is so much change I wish to see done that I was scared might never happen if he won again. Second of all, Kamala Harris will be the first Black, Indian, and woman vice president.
To me, this is really empowering and a huge signal of change. Even though she has done things in the past that I don’t agree with, her being elected vice president in itself is a great feat that we should celebrate because finally, we are able to see someone in a great position of power who is representing an underrepresented group of people.
Like I said before, Kamala Harris has done things I don’t agree with. So has Joe Biden. But this is the outcome we wanted. This is the change we wanted to see and criticizing people for celebrating a victory is so counterintuitive. Our country is already plagued with polarization, so I think we need to realize that there can be gray areas. There can be times where things can be good and bad at the same time, and be willing to try and correct it along the way.
At the end of the day, no matter who we vote into office, no one is going to be perfectly and 100% happy with the outcome. There will always be critics and there will always be flaws, and that is something we will never be able to avoid. Something we can do, however, is continue to put pressure on these people to get the outcome we want and to see the change we want to see.
For Joe Biden, right now is not the time to do that. We just found out the results and he isn’t in office yet. For now, let people celebrate. Let people be happy that change is on the way and they got the outcome they wanted and expected, and that we knew the results in days, not in weeks, and not in months.
When he is inaugurated into office, that will be the time to begin criticizing him because that is when he can do something. Let that happen in 2021, but for now, can we just end 2020 with some much needed positivity?