Trump has lost the 2020 US Election in a massive landslide. The night before, Florida was called the minute the polls closed. Biden. For all intensive purposes, the election is over. Of course, Trump sued a few states, threw some tantrums. But after losing Florida by 10 points, and losing the popular vote by 15, even his own allies closed in on him. It’s done.
It is not without social unrest. The next day, the MAGA crowd storms state capitols, similar to the manner in which they had earlier in the year. Militias go to state houses and demand that electors change the outcome, citing Trump’s unfounded claims of massive mail in voter fraud. There are a few violent clashes between protestors and counter protestors, which ultimately get shut down after Biden calls in the national guard after Trump is forcefully removed from office.
Marc Johnson… or should we say… Dr. Marc Johnson… is happy. He in his last month of residency, and about to move to Houston, TX, to start work in the ER. He voted for Biden, despite having been a political center-right moderate most of his life - fairly typical for someone raised outside of Dallas near Plano, TX. With the election behind him, and the unrest easing, he finally feels like he can get on with his life, able to focus on patient care more than he had been able to in the past months, with the triple crises of a pandemic, economy, racial unrest all making the world a very scary place for the prior year.
Lori Michaels, a 32 year old software engineer from Denver, Colorado is happy. She just had a date with this guy, James, she met on a dating site. James, a 30 year old marketing manager for a competing tech company, hasn’t been on an in person date since the pandemic began. But after meeting Lori, and both getting tested for COVID, they agree to finally meet at an outdoor cafe. They talk about the election, and both realize they were interested in politics, having both done phone banking to encourage voters in Ohio to go to the polls. After the date, they both commit to plans. After so many months of loneliness during the pandemic and god knows how many video dates, both are excited to meet someone who has so much in common.
Jay Carter is relieved that while his candidate didn’t win, at least, the election is over. He, at 40, just suffered through a terrible year where he both got sick with COVID and had to shut down his restaurant due to the pandemic. He lives in Kirkland, WA, ground zero for where the pandemic started in the US. While he tried to keep the restaurant going, he just could not make it work economically at 25% capacity. Once he got into the winter months, which made outdoor dining functionally impossible, he decided to shut it down.
Luckily, his wife, Andrea, is a high school teacher with some tenure, so they are not at risk of homelessness. But Jay - despite having a modicum of security and some savings, laments the loss of his business due to no fault of his own. While Jay and Andrea would on occasion argue about politics, they mostly for purposes of family peace, keep to themselves. But Jay is angry about the lockdowns he blames for his business failure, and votes for Trump in protest. Andrea - a lifelong democrat, votes for Biden, as typical for a lifelong democrat, especially in a historic election.
Thankfully, news reports are continuing that treatments for COVID are becoming more effective, and quick tests are becoming cheaper. The end of the pandemic is in sight, with several vaccines very close. Even Jay, who has been depressed for months, is starting to become optimistic on his better days.
Things are looking up.