by Tuesday night. Oh man. I lay in bed at 2am glued to my laptop as the results from Florida came in. The big dump of ballots from Miami-Dade, where Biden massively underperformed relative to Clinton four years ago, was a bombshell. “I’ll be shocked if Biden wins Florida,” tweeted Matthew Isbell, a Florida expert. At that point it was clear we were in for a long night. More results trickled in and they too looked iffy for Biden. My 7:30 lesson had been cancelled (my most useful cancellation ever) and at around six I tried to get some shut-eye, to no avail. I got up at 7:30 expecting to see Trump on the verge of a second term, and allowed myself a smile when I saw that Wisconsin had been called for Biden and some networks had also projected Arizona in his favour. He was still in with a good shout.
Biden then gave a quick speech, in which he was predictably (but with justification) upbeat, and then came Trump who briefly took us into a very dark place by begging that millions of legitimate votes should be disallowed, wrongly saying that he’d won Pennsylvania. I spoke to Dad who said, that’s it then, Trump’s won. But unlike me, Dad isn’t exactly a numbers man. Those mail-in ballots, and there’s plenty of them, will be very friendly to Biden. Trump is trumping out of his arse, Dad. As for Mum, she was playing tennis, and very angry at Trump’s apparent win. She really can’t stick Trump.
Wednesday and Thursday were grim days. The despair at how Trump, win or lose, received so many votes. The mounting Covid tallies as we sleepwalked into disaster. The sleep deprivation. The total lack of sun. I followed Twitter accounts of those in the know, such as the fantastic Jon Ralston in Nevada. There was great suspense every time a new batch of ballots was released. What do those numbers mean? Are they good or bad? I was madly googling names of obscure counties. By Thursday evening it was clear that Biden had done enough. I had a lesson with an 18-year-old guy, and we strayed into politics. Bad idea. Turned out he was a Trump fan. He even showed me his Trump book. He should be in prison, I said. He has no business being a free man.
Friday and Saturday went by in a holding pattern. To be honest I was enjoying the slow drip-feed of votes for Biden, particularly in Pennsylvania. There was much talk of lawsuits. Then at 6:30 on Saturday evening it happened. Pennsylvania was called for Biden, putting him on 273 electoral votes. There was a sudden outpouring of joy and celebration. People were dancing in the streets of Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC. Power had been returned to the people. What a moment that was. Then last night came the speeches. Biden’s was perhaps his best yet. He could so easily have made occasional jibes at the now-lame-duck president, but he never did. And Kamala was wonderful. She has a great sense of humour. A stark contrast from the humourless egotism of the last four years. (I watched and listened, imagining with horror the pure hatred that would have emanated from Trump and Pence, had they been re-elected.)
It’ll be tough for Biden. It was a close election; the blue wave didn’t materialise. Trump, a bully, a liar and a cheat, has got 71 million votes and they’re still counting. The Senate (which has a huge Republican bias, more so than the Electoral College which is bad enough) will remain red unless the Democrats win both run-offs in Georgia (what a state that has been) on 5th January. The Democrats even lost seats in the House, though they keep control of it. And more immediately, Trump still has eleven weeks to do serious damage. The Dems are busily putting together their coronavirus taskforce, but they can’t do a damn thing until the orange monster vacates the scene.
It was amusing as hell to see the BBC cameras zooming in on Trump’s game of golf, minutes after the election had been called. He’ll soon have plenty more time for that. Until he’s banged up, that is.
