Nearly 100 million Americans voted before Election Day this year. Now, we wait, watch, and hope. It is a commodity that’s been in short supply in 2020, as a pandemic, civil rights protests, and raging wildfires piled atop the election’s boiling-hot rhetoric. But, damn it, we must hope.

We are united

We hope that Americans remember that we are States United, not states divided, and that our similarities overshadow our differences.

We hope that high-pitched electioneering gives way to quiet conversation.

… to respecting science, nature, and each other.

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times

We have leadership

We hope that we will treat each other kindly, for we are all Americans, with a president for all Americans.

… that dysfunction gives way to precision, focus, and steady leadership.

By Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey, Yasmeen Abutaleb, The Washington Post

… leaders rise above self-destructive strife to make deliverance from illness and death a unifying national cause.”

Michael Gerson, The Washington Post

[We enter 2021] … with our eyes open, and our mouth and nose covered.

The Editors, The Palm Beach Post

We are the america the world respects

We hope that the world will see us return to our better selves.

[That we have once again] a president with the dignity and largeness of vision to understand that America still means something in the world.

Mona Charen, The Ethics and Public Policy Center

Remember how we felt about each other as the nation — indeed, the world — went into quarantine? How we sang and waved and greeted each other with kindness and compassion?

We are still those people. That’s more than hope.