On Election Night, I advised my 32-year old niece and nephew to concentrate on an issue they really cared about and to volunteer their time and money.  As a state legislator, I told them, I will be in a unique position to protect the people of Maryland against harmful  decisions in Washington.

I wrote that four years ago.

What advice would I give them and myself as the votes are still being counted on the Friday morning after Election Day?

If Joe Biden wins, we won’t have to worry about harmful decisions.

But Maryland can still serve as an example by enacting programs that are stalled by gridlock in Washington.  We can be the laboratory of democracy, as Justice Brandeis said of the states’ role in our system.

While doing that, we should bear this in mind.

Again, while Biden made small inroads with working-class voters, there seems to be no huge shift. Maybe because many working-class Trump voters not only feel looked down upon, but they also resent what they see as cultural censorship from liberal elites, coming out of college campuses. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/opinion/trump-biden-election-2020.html  (Tom Friedman)

The concerns of the working class are shared by the conservative religious community, I would add.

The electoral transformation of power was made possible by John Lewis, Lyndon Johnson, and millions of Americans exercising their sacred right to vote.

It is now up to all of us to follow Abraham Lincoln’s counsel to “bind up the Nation’s wounds.”