America Is a Lot Sicker Than We Wanted to Believe

Hmmm, a lot to take in over the past three days, and we will get to the heart of it shortly. But first, after four years, I think we owe it to ourselves to take just one moment to celebrate a singular, long-sought reality:

Donald Trump will be a one-term president, ejected from office by the American people.

This, as Joe Biden once told Barack Obama about the ACA, is “a big fucking deal.” Biden is on track to win the popular vote by an even larger margin than Hillary did in 2016 — about 4 million votes. He will also receive more votes for president than any candidate in American history (though that is partially a simple function of growing population), about 73.6 million thus far to Trump’s 69.6. His final tally might approach 80 million. Kamala Harris will be the first woman Vice President, the first person of color in that office, as well as the first Black and South Asian one.

But numbers don’t really capture it. Consider this: Prior to this cycle, a challenger has unseated an incumbent president only four times in the past hundred years (FDR over Hoover in 1932, Carter over Ford in ’76, Reagan over Carter in ’80, and Clinton over Bush in ‘92).

So, yeah, a BFD.

On a practical level, Biden’s win is a major step forward in our efforts to stanch the…