It took only 36 uneventful minutes on Monday for Congress to officially certify the results of the 2024 presidential election.
Contrast that short, routine event with what happened four years ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters — encouraged by then-outgoing President Donald Trump's incessant lie that the 2020 presidential election had been "stolen" from him — violently overran the U.S. Capitol building during the election certification process.
It's also worth noting that Democratic representatives and senators did their jobs without insisting that the 2024 presidential election was stolen from Vice President Kamala Harris — unlike some of their GOP counterparts during the 2021 certification vote, who insisted on Trump's supposed win.
In one of her last acts as vice president, Harris presided over Monday's certification.
Her words to the news media after the vote should be the nation's guidestone for the next four years: "Democracy must be upheld by the people."
Yes, it is up to the people. If Trump's White House comeback is like his first term in office, it will mean a return to misinformation, outright disinformation and lies, bombast, scandal and inept governance.
And this time, Trump will have — for now, at least — a Republican-dominated House and Senate willing to back much of his agenda, along with help from multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who has no experience in governing at any level yet is poised to exert considerable influence on the president-elect.
Still, as Harris reminded us Monday, there is work that can be done by fair-minded citizens who are concerned about the future of our country and are willing to put its best interests above partisan politics and divisiveness.
Things like contacting legislators to voice opinion on destructive policies, such as threats to health care and Social Security. Things like researching the candidates and voting in 2026 for those who, over the next two years, show they are choosing — or will choose, if they're a challenger to an incumbent — proper governance over the chaos of mismanagement.
It also means supporting voices and candidates at the state and local level who stand up for policies that improve lives — giving us better schools, clean air and water, more economic opportunity — while helping to bring us together.
Before this week's election certification, President Joe Biden said Trump's actions on Jan. 6 2021 were "a genuine threat to democracy. And I’m hopeful that we’re beyond it."
So are we. It's up to all of us to make sure that's the case.
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