No, you don’t have to ‘celebrate Trump’s loss then get straight back to work’

In this extraordinary week, a number of editorials and op-eds are encouraging readers to celebrate Donald Trump’s magnificent downfall… but then get back to work. Or resume our usual vigilance. Or defend against Rudy Giuliani’s farcical quest to overturn the election. Or something.

This is not one of those columns. This country hasn’t had a good day in four years. We can afford to take a few days off from the relentless grind of political misery, which I’m sure will resume sooner than we expect. Of course there’s more work to do, the country is still bitterly divided and unequal, and there is harm our outgoing president can do before he vacates the White House. I’ll address those things in another column.

This column’s only message is this: Enjoy this moment.

Enjoy this rare triumph of democracy.

Enjoy the dancing in the streets, the cheering, the singing, the banging of pots and pans.

Enjoy the palpable feeling of having narrowly escaped autocracy.

Enjoy the ability to breathe again.

Enjoy the impotent rage of the man who wanted to be president forever, tweeting absurdly, “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!”

Enjoy all the words you can use for him now: outgoing president, one-term president, soon-to-be-ex-president, lame duck.

Enjoy the long list of names we may never need to read again, from Mark Meadows to Stephen Miller to Jared Kushner.

Enjoy the helpless tantrums of Rudy Giuliani, who shrieked outside a sex shop, “Networks don’t get to decide elections! Courts do!”

Enjoy the sight of our would-be dictator peering out his black SUV at people — endless rows of people, on both sides of the road — giving him hundreds of middle fingers.

Enjoy these words: President-elect Joe Biden.

Enjoy the bounce in Biden’s step, the sincerity in his smile, the obvious decency in his character.

Enjoy the fact that our new president not only has a dog, but two dogs that appear to be larger than most humans.

Enjoy the numbers — the unprecedented number of people who voted; the 4 million vote difference in Biden’s favor; the substantial and growing lead he has in the Electoral College; the fact that his victory is decisive after all.

Enjoy the fact that even Fox News admits Biden won.

Enjoy everything about Kamala Harris. Enjoy the fact that our next vice president will be a brilliant, vibrant woman instead of a gray old man so lifeless that flies land on him.

Enjoy Thanksgiving. Enjoy not having to spend it worrying about ballots and percentages.

Enjoy looking forward to next year instead of dreading it.

I have no “but” to add to all this enjoyment — just an “and,” which is this: Enjoy these things, and ignore Donald Trump. He is a monster created by our own attention, and, as it turns out, our lack of attention can destroy him. There were only two moments during this election when I really felt sure he was done for: first, when he tried to foist a fake scandal about Hunter Biden on us, and the press ignored it; and second, when after losing his reelection, he held a press conference in which he spewed crazy conspiracy theories about election fraud, and all major news networks pulled the plug. 

Trump has never been a successful businessman. He became a celebrity only because of our attention. He became president only because of our attention. Attention to him is oxygen. So ignoring him is not laziness, or lack of vigilance, or failing to “get back to work” after all the celebrating. It’s actually the most important thing we can do right now. Enjoy it.