Reflections on President-elect Biden's Victory Speech

As a political independent, and cross-partisan Democracy Reformer, I try to read and watch political news from many different points of view. On Saturday night, approximately 80 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden celebrated the long awaited election results. Assuming Trump's legal challenges fail, and the recounts confirm the current results, it appears that Vice-president Joe Biden will become our 46th President. Many Americans took to the streets in big cities all over the country to celebrate. Their joy and relief was palpable.

President Elect Biden’s speech was very well written and well delivered. It was a clear call to healing, unity and for all of us to listen and respond to our “better angels.” Thankfully, Mr. Biden spared us from singing, “On Eagles’ Wings.” Nonetheless, the sentiments of those old Catholic hymn lyrics that he shared were inspiring to many -- “spread the faith”; faith in our fellow Americans, faith in our democratic institutions, faith that we can do better than demonizing our opponents and tearing each other apart.

So, will we and will our political leaders rise to this call? If so, then perhaps we should start by acknowledging the approximately 75 million Americans who voted for President Trump, and who are not celebrating. For them, this past weekend was not a party. Instead, it forebodes a return to "business as usual" in Washington. Once again, I was disappointed in main stream media coverage of President-elect Biden's victory speech - national coverage that barely acknowledged the simple fact that so many of our fellow Americans were not celebrating. Of course, some of the talking heads gave this a quick mention, but I didn’t see any attempt to put forward any people or political leaders who supported Trump, people who could speak personally from that point of view. This is yet another missed opportunity to heed President-elect Biden's call to "give [the other side] a chance." Indeed, we would all do well to offer each other a lot more Grace and empathy. And, empathy requires intentionally trying to see things from another person's perspective.

In spite of Joe Biden's apparent victory, we remain a nation deeply divided. A nation who, by and large, gets their “political facts” only from one point of view. Either it’s the main stream media or conservative “agitators” (or worse, conspiracy theorists) who primarily exert their influence via radio and social media. We can’t even agree on a common set of facts or the common good. Our media (both main stream and social), unfortunately, reflects the same divide and conquer attitude as our culture. So, will we rise to the call for healing and unity, and work to see the world from our opponents' perspective; or, will we continue on our current destructive trajectory of enraged, hyper-partisan bickering?

For those of us who are actively striving for a "more perfect Union," perhaps we can find some common ground here ... our entire two-party political system---a classic "duopoly"---is corrupt and broken. Anyone who claims to be a patriot is claiming to love their country more than their party or any political leader. Let's demonstrate that love of country through wise, NONpartisan action. If you are dismayed by political corruption, then please donate time and money to organizations who fight against corruption in politics. And, if you believe our two-party system is broken---ignoring the voices of millions of Americans while spending billions of dollars to further their own selfish ends---then please STOP donating money to partisan candidates and causes. Doing so, is only throwing good money after bad.

Instead, please invest your time and treasure in one of over 100 CROSS-partisan or NON-partisan Democracy Reform organizations all over our great country. You can find one, in your state, at the Bridge Alliance website: https://www.bridgealliance.us/members_by_state. These organizations are working to fix the political system itself which will, in turn, make our government more ethical and effective.

In my humble opinion, our divided nation won't heal, and we won't grow toward a Union more perfect, until we change the system itself as a FIRST priority. Our current political system literally incentivizes partisan extremism and dysfunction. Any politician who dares to compromise, or work in a bi-partisan manner, will get "primaried" during their next election cycle. Even the very best candidates and political leaders, with the very best intentions, cannot bring about real change or real solutions in a system that rewards toxic partisanship and obstructionism. THIS COMPLETE SYSTEM FAILURE IS FAR BIGGER THAN ANY PARTY OR PERSON. And, it's up to "We the People" to fix it.

Healing our nation also starts inside each of our hearts; with each of us laying down our partisan disputes, our demonization of "the other," and instead offering grace and empathy. REAL systematic change begins when "we the people" band together to demand proven democracy reforms; reforms such as: non-partisan redistricting, small donor, opt-in campaign finance, more robust campaign finance disclosures, OPEN, NON-partisan primary elections and alternative voting systems (e.g., ranked-choice, star or approval voting). These reforms, once enacted, will help us elect more consensus-based, problem solving candidates who truly put country over party. And, eventually, they will lead us on toward a more perfect Union.

There is a lot of work to do to heal these deep divides, and repair our broken politics. So, let's start today! Please join me. Our future and our democracy hang in the balance.

The Author is a Navy veteran and volunteer leader with Missouri's premier, fiercely cross-partisan democracy reform organization, Show Me Integrity.?