Catharsis in the streets as election ends
As soon as the news buzzed on their phones, Americans gathered spontaneously on street corners and front lawns — honking their horns, banging pots and pans, starting impromptu dance parties — as an agonizingly vitriolic election and exhausting four- day wait for results came to an end Saturday morning. And for all that joy, there was equal parts sorrow, anger and mistrust on the other side.
Across the United States, the dramatic conclusion of the 2020 election was cathartic. Just after The Associated Press and other news organizations declared that former Vice President Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump, fireworks erupted in Atlanta. In Maine, a band playing at a farmers’ market broke into the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
People waved Biden signs from balconies and banged pots and pans. A pickup truck drove around Washington with a band playing in the bed. In Manhattan, they danced in the streets, banged cowbells and honked their car horns. In Louisville, Kentucky, Biden supporters gathered on their lawns to toast with champagne.
Trump’s supporters have for days been protesting outside of ballotcounting operations, alleging without evidence that the slow-moving results were proof of cheating. “This isn’t over! This isn’t over! Fake news!” some of Trump’s supporters shouted as they gathered at the Georgia State Capitol after news organizations’ decision to call the election.
But across America on Saturday morning, it was mostly the Democrats taking to the streets in jubilant displays, celebrating what was to them an end to four years of constant crises, chaos and anxiety.
In Brooklyn, they chanted “the nightmare is over.”
“It’s surreal, I feel like I’m free from the clutches of evil,” said Lola Faleit, a 26-year- old human resources manager in New York City. “I feel less worried for my immigrant friends. In 2016, we woke up crying. Today we are celebrating. Look, the sky is clear blue, the sun is out, Mother Nature is celebrating, too.”
Nov. 7 at 11:25 a.m., became for many of Biden’s supports a moment of such historic magnitude they suspect they will always remember what they were doing, even the most mundane weekend activities.
Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon learned the news when her mother called as she wrapped up a run and was getting onto an elevator.