Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have emerged victorious from the 2020 election, and while this is cause for celebration, there is much work to be done. Of the 328.2 million people in the U.S., over 150 million people voted, of those 150 million, 72,476,764 voted to re-elect Trump, the second-highest amount in U.S history, following only the 77,760,055 votes that Biden received.  

How did the country get to this point? How could nearly half the country want to vote for Trump in the middle of a pandemic that continues to ravage the U.S.? Over 11 million total cases so far, with 249,823 deaths, and no end in sight. 

Though Trump has been terrible in leading the country’s pandemic response among other things, the real problem is the GOP, which has consistently enabled his actions and allowed him to do as he pleases with next to no repercussions. That’s why, now that Biden and Harris have won, the senate runoff in Georgia is crucial to the outcome of the next four years. Democrats control the presidency and the House of Representatives, but the Senate is still in favor of Republicans.

With Mitch McConnell as majority leader in the senate, Biden’s administration won’t be able to get done what they’ll need to. Between Jan. 3, 2019 and September of 2020, only 1 percent of nearly 15,000 bills have been enacted into law. For the country to get over COVID and not only get back to “normal”, but work towards a better country for everyone, the democrats need to be able to pass bills quickly and efficiently. This will not be possible if there continues to be gridlock amongst our own government.

Biden wants important things to be done during the next four years, like tripling funding for public education, raising the federal minimum wage to $15, expanding coverage of health insurance and ensure the U.S. achieves 100% clean energy by 2050.

If the Democrats can secure the two senate seats in Georgia, Biden can put his plans into action and show Republicans what it looks like when the government actually works to support and benefit all the people it represents, not just some.

With Biden, we can show Republicans why we voted Trump out and why he badly needed to go. Because we need the country to move forward and stop clinging to the illusions of some mythic, glorious past that’s been conjured up by the nostalgia of white America. We can move forward with Biden, but we can only go backwards with Trump and the GOP.