I feel like we have just overthrown a dictator. Seriously, I haven't felt this relaxed since

[catbyte]

sometime mid-2016. I am hopeful that it's going to be okay. It will be dicey for a while because that thing still has 72 days to fuck things up, but I sense he is shrinking and his influence is diminishing with each passing minute. And his childish behavior is so cringy. I hope the 70,000,000 morons who voted for him feel just a little shame. I know the rabid cult won't, but I hope some do. I know that we're going to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, WHO, maybe save ANWR, strengthen NATO, and our relationship with the world.

I am happy.

We did it.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I wish Joe could start tomorrow.

We have a big mess to fix and that doesn't even include Covid.

[bamagal62]

19. This

[Phoenix61]

2. Yes we did! nt

[steve2470]

3. Yes, it feels that way

I was so worried before the election, that the dictator wannabe could actually be re-elected. 70 million voters actually voted for this monster. That is a huge stain on our history.

Hopefully we shall never see him or his ilk (such as Trump Jr. or Carlson or Tom Cotton) again.

[UTUSN]

4. We not only did it but we did it!1

[Meowmee]

5. We have...

I felt so relieved, now I am a bit nervous again wondering what will happen until Jan etc.

[Polly Hennessey]

6. I am happier than I have been for a very long time.

I am excited about our country and proud to
be a part of it. I feel confident we are going to approach our problems with the purpose of solving them. A small aside: Champ and Major will also be living in the White House. Perfection.

[ailsagirl]

15. I guess I didn't realize how sad &

dispirited I’ve been since he came on the scene. People have described it as the inability to breathe— yes, it was very much the way I felt. Every day it seemed that some new outrage bombarded us, each one worse than the last. Now it’s as if a gigantic weight has been lifted from my shoulders and what an empowering feeling it is!

[bamagal62]

20. I feel so much the same way

[ailsagirl]

30. ...

[pazzyanne]

17. I have actually been getting REM sleep for the first time since 2016.

I had forgotten what it was to dream (while sleeping).

[Cha]

7. Because we have.. trump has acted like

one & if he had won another 4 years I think there would be not much left of the America we knew.

[BlueMTexpat]

23. The only way that we could

have survived at all is for the Blue States literally to secede ... and certainly to kick him out of Washington, DC, which is one of the bluest areas in the country.

My DIL says that the celebrations there have really been something!

Today is the first day in four years that I have been relieved of an overwhelming feeling of dread.

[onetexan]

25. Ditto!!

[Cha]

26. Yes, There are celebrations all over the World

today for Biden & Harris Winning! I've been celebrating on DU & texting family and friends for 15 hours.. I cannot get eough!

The last few days have been excruciatingly stressful especially after trump won Florida. And, then there's all this PTSD on so many levels of past election losses that we thought we were going to win!

So it's going to take me awhile to process this very miraculous Victory for Democracy!

[BlueMTexpat]

27. I am devastated

about the results in my birth state of Montana.

But Missoula, my favorite city there, stayed blue, as always!

[Cha]

29. I know I was thinking about Montana

but didn't want to say anything.

It's unreal to me after seeing trump lie and tear down America & actually be responsible for people dying bc of his lies that anyone sane could vote for him.

So glad Missoula is Blue.. I was there once in the '80s on a North west camping trip.

My granddaughter voted for Biden in Great Falls.. actually I don't know if she voted there or in Portland Oregon. Do you know how Great Falls voted?

[BlueMTexpat]

31. Per the calculations in

The Guardian, which was my go-to election website (no paywall and it follows the AP reporting, which is why Biden has had the EVs from AZ all along), shows that Cascade County went for Covidiot 23,199 to 15,384 for Biden.

This graphic should show the vote total for the state. If not, just scroll over Montana and then click. For results in Great Falls, the county seat of Cascade County, you'll have to scroll over the counties.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/07/us-election-2020-live-results-donald-trump-joe-biden-presidential-votes-pennsylvania-georgia-arizona-nevada

Your granddaughter most likely voted as an absentee from OR. But if she voted as a Montanan, she is one of the 15,384.

As an aside, the other strongly blue areas in the state are Silver Bow County (Butte), Deer Lodge County (Anaconda) and Gallatin County (Bozeman); Glacier County, Blaine County and Big Horn County ALL have a strongly Native American voting presence.

Butte and Anaconda have still remained Democratic strongholds and Montana Tech is in Butte. Bozeman has the Montana State University-Bozeman.

Lewis and Clark County (Helena), while Red, has one of the closer vote margins in the state. It is actually more Purple than Red.

Great Falls was, for a very long time, strongly Democratic, largely because of the Anaconda Company smelter and refinery in Black Eagle, which had a unionized work force.

Anaconda's departure 40 years ago, after it merged with Atlantic Richfield, was a huge loss to the state's extractive economy. Nothing since has really made up for that. Ever since, the state has gotten redder, most recently being flooded by wealthy "immigrants" from other states, one of whom is Greg Gianforte, aka "Giant Fart," who dumped in $7 million+ of his own money to buy the Governor's seat.

This is an old article, but a good one, about the Anaconda Co. departure. https://mtstandard.com/news/local/anaconda-smelter-30-years-later/article_1177866e-c92d-11df-8251-001cc4c002e0.html

For other information, see Marcus Daly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Daly

If you're interested, here's some good reading about the impact of copper mining on Montana's history and development. https://www.amazon.com/War-Copper-Kings-Greed-Politics/dp/1931832218

[Cha]

32. Thank you for all this information

on Montana, BlueMT! I like reading about the Blue parts.

So my granddaughter is in a mostly red part but maybe not the University.

They're all Dems.. my whole family from Florida to Connecticut and states in between. On the West Coast, too.

I texted my daughter in Portland this morning about I was so happy that I was crying... she texted back.. "It's fricking fantastic!!".. and she's not political at all. Just had seen enough to know he's bullshit.

[nuxvomica]

8. We need to start turning over the rocks and squishing the pallid uglies exposed

This cancer still seethes beneath the surface. Once Trump leaves office, the crimes need to be investigated and the systems and players that supported and enable him need to be exposed as well: campaign finance reform, social media and right-wing media, the Republican fairy-tale factories, the incompetent judicial appointments, Mitch McConnell, etc. First and foremost will be all hands on-deck in the Georgia run-offs. After the largest tumors are removed, there needs to be biopsies, radiation must continue and we have to get the patient to quit smoking.

[steve2470]

9. well-said

The Lincoln Project has those exact same goals (despite being never-Trumpers). I look forward to them helping we Dems eradicate Trumpism forever.

https://lincolnproject.us/

[nuxvomica]

10. Yes, I was thinking of the Lincoln Project

They are still controversial around here but some of their members have admitted that the rot pre-dates Trump and that they are ashamed of the role they had in creating it. They can be allies.

[steve2470]

11. I think almost all of them have quit the GOP

Tara Stetmayer quit a week ago during a live podcast. The others have said, in so many words, they regret what they did. Stuart Stevens even wrote a book entitled " It Was All A Lie " (obvious meaning).

They are very much hell-bent on defeating Trump's enablers and burning the current GOP to the ground. As long as they stay on that path, I'm good with them. If they should stray... they lose me. They know they have Democratic allies, so it's to their advantage to not piss us off.

[BlueMTexpat]

24. My DIL, who is

nominally an R, voted for Biden this year.

Of course, she did NOT vote for Covidiot in 2016 either. She is not insane, so there is hope for her.

But I loved the story that when she was filling out her absentee ballot this year, my two grandsons (10 and 12) checked to ensure that she had voted for Biden-Harris!

[Meowmee]

13. This

[Dem2theMax]

12. I'm the same way.

I've been on edge for four years. And the past few weeks have been beyond horrible. I could feel the stress in my system to the point where I couldn't even sleep at night.

And right now I feel like I've turned into jello. So doggone relaxed I don't know what to do with myself!

[cwydro]

14. Yes!

Rec.

[BadgerMom]

16. Right there with you.

It’s as though power has been restored after a blackout.

[renate]

18. I mean... didn't we?

How—especially since Barr’s installation—have we not been living in a gilded dictatorship?

[appalachiablue]

21. WE MUST TAKE THE US SENATE, OR WE LOSE LOTS!! JAN. 5, GA RUNOFF

[calimary]

22. Yes we DID!

And you’re right.

Biden and Harris are moving forward and moving the country onward, past this and farther away every day. There’s TONS of work to do and they clearly recognize that.

trump will be like some “incredible shrinking man,” growing steadily less and less relevant every day.

CANNOT WAIT til he’s fully GONE!

[Silent3]

28. Bask in the relief for a bit, but be prepared for a lot of hard work to prevent the next Trump

Make no mistake: The attempt to harness Trumpism—without Trump, but with calculated, refined, and smarter political talent—is coming. And it won’t be easy to make the next Trumpist a one-term president. He will not be so clumsy or vulnerable. He will get into office less by luck than by skill.

At the moment, the Democratic Party risks celebrating Trump’s loss and moving on—an acute danger, especially because many of its constituencies, the ones that drove Trump’s loss, are understandably tired. A political nap for a few years probably looks appealing to many who opposed Trump, but the real message of this election is not that Trump lost and Democrats triumphed. It’s that a weak and untalented politician lost, while the rest of his party has completely entrenched its power over every other branch of government: the perfect setup for a talented right-wing populist to sweep into office in 2024. And make no mistake: They’re all thinking about it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trump-proved-authoritarians-can-get-elected-america/617023/

[JudyM]

33. We came too close on Tuesday, it was alarming. On the heels of a 4-year cliff dive. Total relief.

We all need a long hot bath ... and then some...

Doggies didn’t know exactly what was happening, but they’ll all be more relieved, too, as our tensions ebb. Thanks for all the comic and heart-based furry relief during the long nightmare, catbyte.

[bdamomma]

34. We are not done yet

we have a maniac in the WH still, a media who could be playing up those poor rural voters and playing nice with them, also we have Mitch and Lindsey who continue to play mind games with us and the upcoming new administration.

Relax yes, and get ready to fight again.