Joe Biden is declared the President-Elect of the United States!

Personally, I’m not allowing myself to fully believe it, until he’s sworn in on January 20th, but I can’t stop this warm feeling filling in my chest and this smile on my face. 

For the first time in a week, it feels like I can finally breathe again. America can start healing. 

Let us celebrate, but we must acknowledge that 48% of America is not. The only way for us to truly win against Donald Trump is if we react with kindness, respect, and empathy. The polls projected Joe Biden’s win to be a landslide and that simply wasn’t the truth. Trump’s silent “majority” did show up. Social media platforms and news organizations highlight the loudest and most extreme sides of both parties. For the sake of the future of our nation, it’s better to assume that the majority of Republicans don’t support his “MAGA Ideology,” but that the conservative policies of the Trump administration provided answers to their valid concerns about the future of conservative America. Joe Biden isn’t supposed to be a revolutionary President, he’s supposed to be a healing one. That includes healing “both sides” of America and mending them into one.  

Let us move forward together. Partisanship has always been the Achilles heel of America. Partisanship has been deeply ingrained into our culture. We’ve all had to memorize the different party systems in history class. From the loyalists/patriots to the Federalists/Democratic-Republicans to now the Democratic and the Republican parties as we know them today. Not to mention the extremely important fact that the Civil War nearly destroyed America already, so let’s make sure that partisanship never becomes violent and this divisive ever again. America has a handful of critical problems that need to be solved and we will only be successful unless everyone’s concerns are accounted for: COVID-19, the post pandemic economy, climate change, the housing crisis, technological ethics, and so much more. 

Let us remain critical. Joe Biden was the democratic nominee and 75 million did vote for him, but in reality he was not everyone’s first choice. Yes, he is what America needs right now in order to heal. However, he could also be so much more. It’s important that we don’t blindly support him just because he is a democratic President or else democracy would continue to wither away. Biden needs to work for our constant approval and we should give criticism and praise where it is deserved. 

The youth is the future of our nation and we have so much work to do. Biden gives us the environment and opportunity to do so, and it’s our duty to shape America to what we feel fit. I am as optimistic as ever as the fight for our future continues.