2020
November
04
Wednesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 04, 2020
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Election Day has come and gone. But the recounts and legal battles may take weeks to resolve.

In the land of instant gratification, Instagram, and same-day Amazon delivery, our patience with the democratic process is being tested.  

One of the lessons of this election may be that America hasn’t changed much since 2016. The political and moral divides are deeply etched. Each side will be tempted to feel justified in declaring victory. If Joe Biden wins, it may be hard for President Donald Trump’s supporters not to feel the election was rigged: Their candidate said so. If Mr. Trump wins, the shadow of the 2000 Gore-Bush race looms large: Nice guys finish last.

That’s why at least 16 states have the National Guard on standby.

But patience is a virtue often associated with maturity. It’s the ability to wait and to hold our impulses in check. It’s about self-government. Yes, freedom of speech and protest are basic democratic tenets. But so is the rule of law. This period of post-election uncertainty is a time to pause, and trust the process, even if we don’t trust the other side. (See our story below.)

In “The House at Pooh Corner,” A.A. Milne describes a stream that has grown into a river. “Being a grown-up, it ... moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, ‘There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.’”

It’s river time, America.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters
Lois Sunflower and Anne Felker hold signs outside the Lehigh County Government Center, where the mail-in ballots are counted, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Nov. 4, 2020.

Books

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Keidrick and Holly Roy, who started two book clubs to discuss race in America, pose in the office in their home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Oct. 27, 2020.
Clara Germani/The Christian Science Monitor
Agotilio Moreno, from Chongos Alto, in the Peruvian Andes, runs herds of 200-300 goats for the city of Laguna Beach, California, along with his border collie mix, Shandu.

The Monitor's View

REUTERS
Ivan Velasquez, then-commissioner of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG,) is seen speaking on a screen as people in Guatemala City, Guatemala, protest against the CICIG's report on corruption in August, 2019.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Jane Barlow/PA/AP
Events manager Alison Taylor takes a closer look at the Golden Monkey installation, by Australian ecological artist Lisa Roet, on the exterior of Inverleith House at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, in Scotland, Nov. 4, 2020. The 45-foot-high inflatable sculpture aims to highlight primate species whose lives and habitats are under threat from the sprawling concrete jungles of the modern world. The golden snub-nosed monkey depicted is an endangered species found in the mountainous forests of central and southwestern China.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow for a little gender-bending blues: Why the electric guitar isn’t just for men anymore.

More issues

2020
November
04
Wednesday
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