Joe Biden - a grandfather who will let young people party

After the Hawaii electorate as the last state voted for Joe Biden on Monday, the total gave him 306 votes (against the 232 for Donald Trump), it can be said that the US presidential election has reached the finish line. All that remains is that on January 6 this vote will be approved by the US Congress, and on January 20, the inauguration of the 46th US President will take place. That’s it - game over.

But why does the feeling remain that nothing is over, that in reality, it has only just begun? I'll start from afar. During this wintery, tense time, we wanted something more peaceful, and my partner and I started watching the romantic series Virgin River on the streaming platform Netflix. The plot of it is quite simple. After a tragedy, a young paramedic tries to find peace of mind by fleeing from the city to a deep province where people are completely different. This juxtaposition of the people of the province with the people of the city is widespread in US cinema. We can remember David Lynch's Twin Peaks and Jonas Elmer's New in Town that is often shown on Latvian commercial television channels with Renée Zellweger in the role of an arrogant city dweller.

In all these films, the inhabitants of the province are portrayed as naive oafs, who, despite their uselessness, are sympathetic and sincere. I am not going to discuss the accuracy or falsehood of such characterization of “bumpkins”. It does not matter. The main thing is that such an image exists and is in demand. These people may be naive, dumb, prejudiced, and backward, but for unexplained reasons, these provincial people are attractive enough in the eyes of Hollywood’s [greedy and only thinking of profits] producers to sympathize with the financially sound city cinema goer. The same New in Town (where the arrogant city dweller is reborn as a completely different person thanks to the sincerity of the locals) was panned by critics, but the film earned over 30 million with a relatively small ($ 8 million) budget. So there is something about this provincial naivety that attracts people.

Looking at the heroes of the Virgin River, you suddenly realize that these very nice, a bit strange people are also the famous Trump electorate. In the run-up to the November 3 elections, many journalists left their cities and sought to delve into the daily life of US provincial cities to understand the thinking of those who voted for Trump, who they considered to be completely unacceptable. All of these reports depict the same people we see in the aforementioned films - a bit naive (so as not to call them a bit slow) people who basically don't understand anything about the "real" life, and therefore "fall" for people like Trump. Here, of course, one could start a discussion about who really understands and who does not understand the "real" life, and which is ultimately the "real" and which is only the "imaginary" life. However, due to the limited scope of the article, we will omit all that.

So there is the "advanced" part of the public who voted for Biden and the "backward" part who voted for Trump. Biden won and we all can happily move on. For some Americans that is precisely how they perceive everything that is happening. So do Trump haters elsewhere in the world. But the jubilance of Biden's victory is obviously different from that of Bill Clinton in 1992 or Barack Obama in 2008. There is no bright, carefree look to the future. Rather, there is joy about Trump’s loss, but the future is viewed with some elusive anxiety.

The social changes that the United States has experienced over the last decade are unimaginable. If until very recently the word socialism sounded like a political curse word there, now people are almost proud of it. The "black lives matter", "me too" and "cancel culture" movements are literally blowing up US society. In one generation (20-30 years), social landmarks have completely changed. This is not comparable to what happened in Latvia and other former socialist countries, because Soviet morality was purely formal for us. Meanwhile, the American lifestyle and the "American dream", in which everyone has unlimited possibilities, has been spoon-fed to every "real" American since their birth. But now social justice, equality, and support for the oppressed are declared as the ideals. Unlike societies that have experienced real "socialism," Western society has no immunity to these well-sounding hymns of a social paradise.

Let's be honest. All of these ideals are much more appealing to the majority of society than the frightening visage of savage capitalism, embodied in real life by Trump's orange hairdo and the red tie hanging over the belt. For all these people, who are passionately in favor of Trump, savage capitalism is the ideal social system in which no one prevents them from living the way they like. However, not all trumpists are as well established in life as the real Trump. Many Trump supporters live a simple, mundane, even modest life. Same as their parents and grandparents lived. Without exceptional wealth and sophistication.

They go to a local bar on Friday night, have a beer, and sing karaoke. But deep in their naive "bumpkin" bones, they feel that something is not right. More advanced conservative ideologues frighten the people that humanity, like the Titanic, is sailing into the iceberg zone, but the people standing on the bridge continue to shout orders - full steam ahead.

In this metaphor, Trump embodies the unheard engineer, who calls to slow down for a moment and explore the surroundings. Shut up, you old fool, in reply shout the wise know-it-alls. A completely innocent elk sculpture is already burning in Portland, the monument to Abraham Lincoln, the one who abolished slavery, is being desecrated, but these "intellectuals" are urging - keep going! No pasaran!

If Trump in their eyes embodies a sincere guy who calls for slowing down, then what does Biden symbolize? He is obviously not a revolutionary who, with Che Guevara's beret on his head, shaking his fist against the sky, will invite everyone to sing The Internationale. He won't even suggest throwing more coal in the furnaces of the Titanic. So what does he embody? Probably a grandfather, who after coming home and seeing that the young people have thrown a fun party, will not disturb them and will quietly go to sleep in his little corner.

Everything would be fine and everyone would like such an "understanding" grandfather. The only problem is that this sleepy grandfather will very soon become the president of the most important and influential country in the world, and the whole world, including our lives, will largely depend on his actions. That is what creates this sense of concern.