Today.

I consider today the true start to 2021. Sure, we may technically be 20 days into this New Year. But we have not been able to shed the ugly shackles of 2020 – and indeed the last four years – until today. At noon D.C. time, Donald Trump becomes just another rich asshole yelling at his television, but this time without a Twitter account. He will no longer be president, and that in and of itself makes the world just a little better.

I’m not naïve enough to think Joe Biden’s inauguration will fix everything automatically. President Biden and Vice President Harris are competent and compassionate leaders, but they are not magicians. Still at least now we can begin the work. I hope these last four years have held a mirror up to ourselves as a country. We can no longer pretend not to see the hatred, the willful consumption of misinformation, the lack of empathy and the denial of basic facts that has consumed the psyche of nearly half our neighbors. Yeah, 74 million people voted for four more years. But 81 million people said, fuck no – never again.

We must hold the people, and the Republican Party, accountable for how far we’ve fallen in just four years. And we must vow to hold every future administration, from Biden-Harris and every woman and man who comes after to a higher standard that cannot be hijacked by partisanship. We need to actually help the people who need help. And listen to science. And fully enfranchise more people. And unpack the courts. And grant LGBTQ people full equality. And so on, and so forth.

All that, and we haven’t even touched on the history we’re about to witness. Kamala D. Harris, first of her name and first female Vice President of the United States of America, first Black Vice President of the United States of America, first Indian-American Vice President of the United States of America. Damn, that’s exciting – and not just because I get to write Vice President Straight Bette Porter for the next four years.

But first, we have to make it to noon today. Happy Biden-Harris Inauguration Day & Last Day of Trump, kittens. We made it.