Hallelujah !!!

Hallelujah !!!

It’s Day Five after the U.S. election and I woke up with the sun gloriously blasting through the window and the urge to jump out of bed and run up the street in my nightie yelling, “Hallelujah. Hallelujah.”

Fortunately, for the neighbours, I headed for the coffee pot instead.

It is Easter in November…it is peace….it is hope…..it is the triumph of life over slow and painful death.

For the first time in months I can avoid turning on the TV or radio and resist the need to know what “breaking news” is seeping up from the Canada-U.S. border.

The hygienist will go back to talking about her love life, the mechanic will brag about his brood and children everywhere can go to sleep without hearing their family fight over politics.

Oh, I know….there are 70 plus days before this nightmare officially ends but the die is cast…the orange maned peckerhead and his wacko brood are on the move.

The long suffering Milania, she with the cobra smile and the fabulous wardrobe, can recoil

from the public eye. The Trump spawn will have to find real jobs in the real world.

And all those media people---the reporters, anchors, commentators, panelists, so-called experts dragged in to help fill time awaiting close results--- can go home and get some sleep and go back to telling us what else is happening in the world.

Like millions of others, I am sleep deprived from binge watching U.S. politics.

These past couple of days it was magical how the pundits stayed awake---and still looked fairly good.

(Mind you, that’s probably because ageism has taken over the industry. There are few if any over 55 in major TV roles today—especially on the CBC. That’s a pity. Covering politics well requires experience and a good knowledge of history. Man, how I miss Craig Oliver on CTV. People say, well at least his granddaughter is there now. Friends, that is his daughter. Good old Craig !!)

While the rest of us grew increasingly disheveled and bleary-eyed in our jammies, the panelists hung in there. I’d drift off for a nap now and then only to find the talking heads still at it---same clothes, perfect coiffures, wide smiles showing off teeth that are too white and too perfect to be naturally placed.

An army of makeup artists must have been on duty with pots of goop to keep the faces powdered, the lip lines perfect and every hair in place.

As an aside, have you noticed lately how just about every female TV personality has the same hair do? Even during the pandemic lockdown when so many of us regular stiffs ---even our prime minister---turned grey and in need of a haircut---those in the TV world stayed blonde and swishy.

All hail to the media for responsible coverage of the election results. Every outlet resisted calling the outcome prematurely. Pollsters---who blew another one---seemed properly chagrined. And from what I could discern, most media focused on the joy of the outcome---millions in the streets with clever signs such as “No more years” and “You’re fired!”

It’s profoundly significant that several major news outlets stopped coverage of Trump’s Thursday rant when he insisted that he had won, disparaged democracy and incited his supporters. That, and his arrogance in taking to the golf course while the election outcome hung in the balance and an army of volunteers laboured long hours in pandemic conditions over the ballot count, pretty well says it all.

On Saturday night there must have been some trouble makers out there somewhere among the some 48 per cent of voters who marked their ballots for Trump but I didn’t see them. Maybe that is yet to come.

Even FOX, the president’s go-to news outlet and his biggest apologist and promoter, played it low key and gave credit where credit was due. Sadly, I doubt that this moderation will continue in the days to come as the euphoria of victory subsides and the reality of defeat sets in.

But for the time being, Hallelujah!