1/ If Trump Had Won

If Trump had won there would never have been a coherent response to Covid. The inefficient patchwork of vaccine roll-outs would never coalesce into anything impactful. Hundreds of thousands more would die without an even an official memorial or acknowledgment

2/ Scientists, medical professionals, and whistleblowers who worked to provide accurate information or improve response would continue to be fired, harassed, threatened, and arrested (like @GeoRebekah). Anti-mask and anti-vaccine sentiment would continue to be officially enabled.

3/ The first four years would seem fantastic by comparison. Police assaults on protestors would escalate, with more civilians imprisoned, murdered, and "vanished". Riots and public clashes would increase. Violence towards the public would be celebrated and empowered.

4/ Honest, competent people would continue to be chased out of their jobs until no one remained but lazy, lying sycophants. The dismantling of the democratic government would be completed. Democratic elections in 2022 and 2024 would never happen.

5/ With no balances, Trump could change the laws to give himself another 4 years. Considering he tried to have his own VP murdered, even lawmakers would likely be assassinated. The terrorists at the Capitol would be the ones given free reign.

6/ The unchecked corruption would continue, the free press would be erased, and if we didn't have another Trump term in 2024 we'd have Don Jr. Persecution of minorities and the LGBTQ+ community would increase. Federal assets would continue being sold.

7/ Environmental/labor regulations would be repealed until none would be left. Trump would continue getting more paranoid, deranged, and capricious. The remaining shreds of our international alliances would be burned. White supremacy would openly rule, as if the Confederacy won.

8/ If you think this is hyperbole, even after the attempts to steal the election and overthrow the government, that's your prerogative, but there is no doubt in my mind that this would only be the beginning and I doubt I could even fathom how deep the pit would be.

9/ This is also, of course, not taking into account the probability of war, both within the US and with other nations, the potential for deployment of nuclear weapons as a response to the bruising of Trump's fragile ego, with no checks or balances left to stop it.

10/ Biden isn't a perfect candidate or person, and we haven't even begun assess the damage Trump has done or recover from it. But the worst path, that of a second Trump term, has been averted. We'll never know just how much worse that fate would be. I literally can't imagine it.

11/ We must still push for progress: to root out corruption and white supremacy, to shore up legal and legislative loopholes Trump exploited, to hold lawmakers accountable to the law and their constituents and demand changes that benefit the masses and not the privileged few.

12/ But it is nearly impossible to do so when pitted against leaders to whom the very idea of democracy is anathema, who meet truth and science with threats, who encourage violence towards those merely seeking justice. You can't repair the damage when the house is still burning.

13/ If the United States has an id and a superego, Trump is that id. He is all the worst that we have ever been distilled into one monster or narcissism, greed, corruption, and cowardice. Removing him from office doesn't remove the id but at least it removes control from it.

14/ There's so much work left to do, and so much left to rebuild, but we at least have the opportunity to do so, and for that I am profoundly grateful. We can get to that but this week I celebrate the removal of a tyrant from office. I've never felt such relief.

15/ We came so close. I don't think most of us have any idea how many times we were spared by luck: we could have lost the vote, or courts could have overturned it. The coup could have succeeded. It was so close. We can't forget that. Trump *almost* succeeded.

16/ Those of us that want to avoid this happening in the future have a lot of work before us because the threat is still there. But we won an important battle, and if we hadn't, we would have lost the war. That requires celebration, grieving, and reflection on what lies ahead.