Multitude of emotions for Chicagoans
At his home in suburban Wood Dale — about 25 miles and a world away from the jubilant pro-Biden revelers who would soon flood the streets of downtown Chicago — Donald Trump supporter Xavier Montalvo pondered his candidate’s apparent defeat Saturday over a bowl of cereal.
Montalvo, a 24-year-old college student and IT worker, had just seen the president at a rally inKenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday, and he’d welcomed the chance to be around likeminded people.
“I’m a huge Trump supporter because of his values. I’m pro-life. I love that he was deregulating business …” Mon
talvo said. “We had a really great thing going with Trump.”
Yet despite his disappointment in the outcome, Montalvo said the process actually reinforced his love for his country.
“We gotta accept it, whether we like it or not,” he said. “That’s the great thing about America.”
From the crowds who danced and celebrated in front of theTrumpTower in Chicago, to the small band of Trump supporters who gathered at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield, to the congratulatory statements of politicians including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who declared, “America is back,” reactions to the news of presumptive Presidentelect Joe Biden’s presumptive defeat over President Trump only highlighted the region’s and nation’s deep political divides.
One area of common ground was the relief and belief that — further legal challenges from the Trump camp aside — the election was finally over. Another was the hope, mixed with quite a bit of skepticism from people of many different political stripes, that Biden will be able to bridge the chasm.
“My biggest emotions right now are relief and excitement and optimism,” Mat Thambi, a 49-year-old Oak Park resident and longtime Democrat, said moments after media outlets declared Biden victorious. “I’ve been so pessimistic for the last four years, it’s good to have something to look forward to now.”
Adrieanne Arnold, too, said she felt happy, relieved and a little shocked that the electionwas over in favor of her candidate after waiting for what felt like forever.
“I felt like Biden cared about how the American people felt,” she said. “It’s like your voice matters, you matter. (At the first debate), Trump didn’t have any selfcontrol. Hewas talking over Biden, so, little old me, I know I’m not going to be
heard.”
Despite this being the most divisive time she has seen in her life, Arnold, a 39-year-old Evanston resident, said she thinks there’s a 50-50 chance Americans can unite on some level. Having been a health manager at a manufacturing company, she hoped Biden would restore Obamacare to provide health insurance to millions of people, and that the new administration can find a vaccine for the coronavirus while reviving the economy.
“I feel like our country is on our way toward restoration,” she said. “We can all heal and restore day by day.”
Dan Motkowicz, a resident of Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood, works in software sales and de
scribes himself as a moderate, though he said he did not vote for Biden.
Regardless, Motkowicz, 38, said he did not feel disappointed when he heard the election called for Biden while in his car.
“It was just a relief,” he said. “It’s been a wildweek.”
He feels that Biden doesn’t have much to offer the country, and that, instead of a clear vision, Democrats were just waiting for Trump to fail.
Still, Motkowicz added: “More than anything else, I just want the craziness of the country to calm down a bit. Even if that means we get four years now of stagnation.”
Though she did vote for Biden, 25-year-old Helena Duncan was possibly even
more skeptical about what his presidency might bring.
Duncan, who was taking awalk in Jackson Park with her boyfriend when her mom texted her the news Saturday, said it was “obviously a huge relief, and I’m pleased and ecstatic.”
As a democratic socialist, however, Duncan said she supports the Green New Deal and “Medicare forAll,” and believes Biden is “not a candidate that will deliver on those issues.”
“I voted for Biden, but I held my nose when I did it because I have no faith in Biden as a leader to enact meaningful change to improve the lives of working people,” she said.
She’s worried about next few months, saying: “The coronavirus is spreading so quickly, I just think it’s going to be a dark couple of months.”
But she said she and her boyfriend are “both so relieved and allowing ourselves amoment of celebration.”
Mawuli Grant Agbefe, 31, was at hisWest Englewood neighborhood home Saturday when his mom called with the news.
Though pleased and relieved the count had ended, Agbefe, a debate coach at Evanston Township High School, said his thoughts quickly turned to the problems the country faces.
“Our country as a whole needs some truth and reconciliation. There are deep amounts of hate,” Agbefe said, citing “people with guns at rallies and the killing of people in hate crimes.”
“Racism and sexism and xenophobia … to those voters, that was not a dealbreaker. (Trump) got way more votes than he should have gotten,” Agbefe said.
In front of Trump Tower, though, a party atmosphere prevailed in the hours after the announcement, with people cheering, honking horns and playing drums.
Brandy Worthy rushed there when she heard the news, wanting to be with a large community of people to celebrate.
“It feels like we may see change,” she said.
Worthy, a Black woman, said she felt optimistic when former President Barack Obama was elected and now feels some of the same emotions, knowing voters came out to repudiate Trump.
“We voted a racist out of office,” she said.
Trump supporter Ronald Timatyos said Saturday he doesn’t thinkTrumpshould concede and should appeal the outcome to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nevertheless, the 37year-old from Edison Park said if Biden ends up moving into the White House, he will accept it. He doesn’t think there is too much division in America that needs healing, instead believing that most of the rancor is stirred up by mainstream news outlets that increasingly remind him of the state media in his parents’ home country of Iraq.
Across the U.S., people want the same things, Timatyos said: They want the coronavirus pandemic to end, and they want their jobs back.
“The American people will be just fine whether it’s Trump, whether it’s Biden,” he said. “We are American. We are brothers and sisters. We’ll be fine.”
Another voter who seemed to take a philosophical view of the outcome was Benjamin Malcolm, a retired public schoolteacher who was out walking his dog, a schnauzer named Howard, in Chicago’s Washington Square Park shortly after the electionwas called for Biden.
Malcolm said he voted for Trump, despite being “a lifelong Democrat, more or less,” explaining that he found Biden “not the most stimulating candidate and too much of the same old, same old.”
Yet Malcolm, too, said he’s happy the “frustrating” wait was over, “and I hope we can move on without any trouble. … Maybe we can get to solving what ails us. There’s plenty.”
The park was crowded with people, dogs and childrenonthis sunnySaturday. Malcolm pointed toward some of them, playing with a ball.
“They don’t care or even know what just happened,” he said, “but I hope they get to live in aworld better than we’ve got now.”