Opinion

The impact on our election was brought home to me Saturday, minutes after media projections called the race for President-elect Joe Biden. After watching the initial news reports -- tough to hear over of the cacophony of car horn honking and cheering coming from outside -- I went to pick up a package.

The latest surge of Covid-19 infections in the US could not be occurring at a worse time -- not just because the winter and influenza seasons are approaching or because the entire country is already worn down by the pandemic, but rather because we have entered into the lame-duck period between Election Day and the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. This interval is a non-trivial 5% of the entire Donald Trump presidency.

This may be the first time in four years that Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't gone to bed smiling.

In historic fashion, Americans came together, cast ballots amid a global pandemic and elected a new president and vice president, pending official certification by state election officials. The process moving forward is well-established, as the states' electors will officially cast their votes in a few short weeks. It's part of the glorious American tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.

Headlines touting "Biden Beats Trump" only hint at the larger significance of this presidential election, one where an anti-racist majority of Americans defeated an incumbent president whose popularity, charisma and purported policy victories rested primarily on expertly stoking racial division.