Shortly after 11 AM this morning, the Associated Press and most major networks, including Fox News, declared Joseph Biden, the former Vice President, the victor over incumbent Donald Trump in this fall’s presidential election. It happened when Biden’s lead over Trump in Pennsylvania passed 30,000 votes. Biden may end up winning the Keystone State by a tally north of 50,000 votes. The Trump campaign, to be sure, will probably exhaust every legal challenge available to them to retard the process. But with Biden leading in three other states as well- Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia- his victory seems all but certain (locally, Biden garnered 82% of the ballots cast in the Garden City).

Millions of people around the world, both here and abroad, are breathing a sigh of relief. Others, to be sure, who support many of Trump’s policies, will be disappointed but hardly  surprised. His behavior of late has been even more irrational and damaging to the nation than heretofore. Social media and television networks have taken to blocking his tweets, posts, and speeches when he starts uttering falsehood after falsehood. I suspect that even Republican stalwarts in the Senate and House, though outwardly conforming to the distorted Trump vision of reality, will be glad when they no longer have to fear incurring the wrath of his minions for taking exception to his most outrageous actions and policies.

Let there be no mistake: this election was a referendum on Trump, not on the Republican Party’s political tenets. No tidal wave of progressive candidates swept into office. A lifelong progressive myself, I am disappointed but not surprised. America is, to a large extent, a house divided. Results in Congressional and state house elections reflect the nation’s lack of political consensus. Still, in the past as a senator and vice president, Biden worked with many of the opposition party’s leadership, and his brand of moderate policies might be just what the nation needs.

Biden owes, undeniably, a great debt to African-Americans, who largely if not exclusively carried him to the presidency, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. African-Americans will demand, and they deserve, serious redress for their many legitimate grievances, from de facto discrimination and economic disparity to mistreatment at the hands of law enforcement. Enacting legislation, however, will take great skill given the divided Congress Biden will face. Here’s hoping that Americans on all sides of the political divide come together to build the more perfect union of our dreams.