CNN has projected that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.
Regardless of your thoughts on policy or where you stand on the political spectrum, I think this is a reason to celebrate.
Trump was a unique politician. He would never concede ground. Never admit to being wrong. He never sought to compromise. He denigrated his opponents as weak, losers, people who didn’t deserve to be heard. He lacked one thing which I think is exceptionally important in the office of the President: Empathy.
The president made no effort to reach out across the political divide. You lost, get over it echoed in the minds of many in 2016. He governed for his base and ran for his base. He told blatant lies. While he may not have overtly said it, his demeanour, presence and words communicated a particular message: if you don’t support me, you’re on your own. If you are weak, you don’t deserve to be heard. Truth doesn’t matter as much as belief. In these final days, he’s even cast doubt on the most important institutions in the US.
Biden is his polar opposite.
I think it’s notable that he wore a purple tie for his speech last night. His time as president will be a time of healing and reaching out. Because that is what he’s always done his whole life.
We’ve traded a mean leader for a humble one. For a man who has a great deal of empathy, because he’s experienced so much pain and loss.
Through all of that, he kept to one message: keep the faith.
He stands for hope. For courage. For grace and for magnanimity. As he said, the aim of politics is not unrelenting war. It’s to make decisions. More unites us as humans than divides us, and we shouldn’t let politics split us.
His election shows that being kind, tolerant, and understanding of all people, regardless of who they are, matters more than brute force and uncompromising attack.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about Biden at first, but I’ve seen so many unprompted stories about the nature of his character. Some have been very touching.
Here’s one I really like.
Dewi Hargreaves 