On Expectations: A Post-Election Commentary

The 2020 Presidential election has come and … well, it has not really gone.  Yes, a winner has been projected, but there is still so much debate and controversy.  The news media and social media is lit up with analysis and predictions and, frankly, hate speech.  It is hard to read day after day and most times I just want to scroll past and look for recipes, pictures of my friends’ toddlers, or, for goodness sake, I even watched a Hallmark Christmas movie the other day.  This is what my world has come to.

 

One of the things that has concerned me the most about the post-election response are the celebrations for the new president.  Not the celebrations themselves, mind you.  Let people celebrate.  They’re happy.  Their candidate is projected to have won.  That’s fine.  What concerns me is the reasons that seem to be behind their enthusiastic joy over his victory.  It seems clear that they have high expectations for his presidency. From everything that I’ve witnessed and heard, the expectations of the new administration are optimistic and expectant and outrageously hopeful.  And it seems those who are applauding the loudest are expecting an immediate change. People are counting down to inauguration day as if on that day a switch will flip and everything that is “wrong” with America will suddenly be made “right”, will be healed, and will be magically restored.

 

I think we might need to adjust our expectations.

 

Change that is lasting and authentic never happens overnight. It is never a quick and easy process.  Change takes time.  It takes effort.  It takes commitment.  It is always slow and small and incremental.  Change is painful.  But in the end, the process through which we journey to achieve change is worth it.  Some people wait a lifetime to see change happen.  

 

The reality we must face is that America in 2020/2021 is a divided nation.  And it’s not just divided into two!  It is divided and sub-divided and then divided some more.  It is a rare thing to get two or three or four people into one room at the same time to agree on anything.  To bring about genuine change in our nation will not happen with the election of any single president.  It will take the bravery and intentionality of every individual across the nation.  And it will take a spirit of incredible patience.  Executive Orders do not bring about change.  Probing the depths of the human heart and advocating for permanent transformation of attitudes, outlooks, mindsets and platforms is the way forward.  We can expect change, but we can also expect that it will take time.

 

Affixing our hopes and expectations to one president (or one vice president) also seems inadequate.  I remember all the myriad of hopes and expectations that were placed so firmly on President Barack Obama.  As the first African American president, he had broken through a boundary that had been a long time coming.  Were we living in a post-racism America? Sadly, the answer was no.  In fact, the issues of racial injustice only grew stronger during his tenure in the White House and America grew even more divided. Expectations for all that President Obama would accomplish for race relations went unmet.

 

Today we face the same kind of scenario.  Are we creating expectations for the next administration that perhaps are out of its reach? Would it be better to temper what we believe they can accomplish in four short years to something slightly more realistic? 

 

Truly, the fate of the nation does not rest in the hands of any sitting president.  No.  It rests in the hands of the citizens of this great nation.  Healing our nation is going to take people who are committed to relationships.  People who are committed to dialogue, committed to learning, committed to the intentionality and initiative and time and effort it takes to create a society that values love and unity and understanding and community over personal gain and individualistic benefit.  We must search out a willingness to see both sides of the issues.  We must find it within ourselves to experience true empathy.  An empathy which puts our own feelings aside and genuinely reaches into the emotions and experiences of others who are not like us, of others whose journeys are different than our own.  

 

What if we were willing to try these things and we failed?  But what if we were willing to try these things and we succeeded?  Unfortunately, true dialogue and a commitment to understanding are not happening in a big way in our nation, in our churches, in our communities.  There is a lot of shouting going on, but not much listening.  If we want to see real change happen, it’s our duty as members of the human race to lean in to the hard conversations.  It’s our job to be willing to trade the comfort of our silence for the discomfort that comes with a glimmer of understanding.  Only then can we manage our expectations for the future with any sense of accuracy.  Only then can we expect restoration for our nation and healing for this land.  Only then can we really encounter the unity we long for as a people, as a nation, and as a global community brought together for the common good.