Some of you are probably wondering why some middle-aged woman living in Australia really cared about U.S. politics and who would be elected the 46th president. Nevertheless, these last few months, J followed the campaign with bated breath, hoping that it would end quite differently than it did in 2016.
Over these long months, J watched how the New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern guided her country with strength and grace. J watched the way that Dan Andrews, the Premier of her home state of Victoria handled the pandemic. Even amidst large numbers of people criticising him, calling him “Dictator Dan”, or claiming he was doing nothing but perpetuating the “pandemic hoax”; he pushed forward and did what he thought was right. His priority was the safety of the people, regardless that he was hated by a large portion of those same people — doing what was right, not what was popular. And all the while, J watched as the President of the United States, downplayed, mocked, and, at his lowest points downright denied the existence of the virus. She was dissapointed in this lack of leadership, but felt even more sorry that America had lost so much over the last four years.
J has always had faith in strong leadership, and she saw this leadership in (then) Presidential candidate Joe Biden during the first debate.
The debate of September 30th was quickly labelled by many journalists as a “train wreck” and a “shit show” — colourful adjectives directed more to Trump’s abusive rhetoric and disregard for the debate rules than anything else. However, J’s biggest takeaway from the debate was not Trump’s behaviour, but the demonstration of Biden’s leadership skills as he ignored Trump’s attempts at derailment and instead directed his attention to the audience via looking into the camera and telling the public to vote and make a difference. The results of election day are proof enough that this behaviour made a difference.
Although the movements to encourage people to vote early, was inspiring, J felt panic when she saw scenes of shopfronts in New York and Washington D.C. boarding up their windows. There was fear of homeland terrorist attacks in the U.S., and all of it was being incited by Trump, who was becoming nothing more than a fear-mongering dictator. (*Do you think that’s too harsh? He isolated his country, scared the shit out of his people, and tried to stifle the free press. If the phoney military uniform fits…)
Although the kindling was stacked, the temperature was lowered during Biden’s victory speech. As pride flags flew and people cried tears of joy (including J herself), Joe Biden told people to forget about red and blue states, and instead, start to look at them as the United states. It was a celebration of peacefulness, led by a leader who stoked not fear and discord, but empowerment and unity. That is what true leadership looks like.
L (as dictated by J).
