I’ve always hated winter, and the older I get, the more I dislike it.  Part of the reason is how long it is – much longer than the other seasons.  The Chinese divide winter into two seasons: Early Winter and Late Winter.  And this year, unlike last, we’re having a “real” winter.  Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 19.

     All this is compounded by Covid.  I was exposed by a friend last Monday and I’ve been lying low ever since.  I have no symptoms at all.  The testing sites here are jammed, and therefore quite dangerous, so I’ve opted to wait before I use the one test kit I have.  I’ll do it this Friday, before I have a scheduled massage.  My masseuse asked me to test before I saw her.  New kits should arrive on Saturday.  It’s been very hard to find them anywhere.

     In addition, there’s politics.  I found the anniversary of January 6th very difficult.  As a historian, I have to go back to the War of 1812 to find a similar event — when the British invaded and burned the Capitol to the ground.  The Confederacy never reached Washington, D.C.  The first time Confederate flags were raised in the Capitol was on January 6, 2021.

     But I’m very glad Biden finally spoke out.  His speech, where he continually referred to “the former president” but never used his name, was excellent.  I especially liked when he said, “He’s not just a former president, he’s a former defeated president.”  However, it continues to be shocking that almost every Republican in Congress, regardless of how they themselves were menaced, continues to downplay the event and support Trump.  Hopefully this will change.  The rate of people getting, and dying from Covid is far higher in Republican districts than in Democratic ones.  The Republicans’ platform now consists of opposing vaccinations, opposing voting, and opposing women.

     I believe this is a losing strategy.  People have voted under even more arduous conditions than those the Republican states are creating.  I hope that the Supreme Court will not overturn Roe v. Wade.  In addition to stare decisus (the principle that the court not reverse long-established policies), Chief Justice Roberts cares that he has a good reputation.  He does not want to preside over a court that makes political rather than juridical decisions.  Let’s hope his view prevails.

     Also, this outbreak of Covid may decline as rapidly as it arose.  It did that in South Africa, which does have a much younger population.  But we can hope that it will diminish within a month or so here. 

     Finally, with regard to Covid, politics, and the weather, remember the end of the quotation with which I started this piece.  Shelley wrote, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind.”

About three years ago I developed stomach problems which were first misdiagnosed and then not solved.  Last June, I had major surgery.  Then last fall, one of the health care aides whom I needed for a few months, brought in bed bugs.  It was a chore to get rid of them.  When that was over, a pipe in my bedroom ceiling began to leak.  I had to have workers remove it and replace it.  Then came January 6.  To most of us, that insurrection in the capitol was bad, but to a historian, who had to go back to the War of 1812 to find a comparable event, it was worse.

Like many others, I coped with 2020 by keeping track of difficulties, measuring them, and feeling good that I had managed to deal with them.  But those times are over.  Conditions got better with Biden’s election, which was celebrated here in Park Slope with cheers and jubilation.  Even the buses and cars honked in celebration.  I loved his inauguration.  Harris’s statement, “I may be the first, but I won’t be the last,” brought tears to my eyes.  Since then, I think they’ve both done a great job.  Biden used to be known for putting his foot in his mouth, but he hasn’t done that now.  Just not having “the former guy” as president has made a tremendous difference – not having his presence weigh on one’s life.

In addition, Biden, unlike Trump, has done a wonderful job with Covid 19.  Instead of fake remedies and down-playing solutions, he’s enabled 2,000,000 people to be vaccinated, double the number he originally promised.  Although it is extremely troubling to have Trump supporters ignore common sense remedies, hopefully their numbers will continue to decline.  Basing your life on unreality is not a winning strategy.  And as of now, not only is his base declining, a group of eminent Republicans is discussing leaving the party.  Discouraging the vote is also a losing strategy – look at all the Black people who have voted under even more arduous conditions through the years.

Life is beginning to become more normal.  After I had my second vaccination, I  counted the days until it kicked in.  I was having dinner party fantasies and the day after I became immune, I had six vaccinated friends over for dinner.  We all enjoyed it.  I’m seeing friends at restaurants, walking more, going to different venues.  Last week I saw the marvelous Alice Neel show at the Metropolitan Museum.  Instead of clenching on to bad news, I am trying to celebrate good news.  It takes an adjustment, but it’s totally worth the effort.  All of us need to try it now!

          A short while ago, a white woman in her thirties told me, “It it’s Biden, I’m not going to vote.”  I tried arguing with her, saying that Trump was much worse than Biden, but I got nowhere.  She maintained that both of them supported corporate capitalism and that if Biden were president, nothing would change.  I was very upset with her, but then I remembered that I had done exactly the same thing she was advocating.

         Back in 1968, I could not bring myself to vote for the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey, to be president.  Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson’s vice-president, had supported the Vietnam war, which I’d marched against for years.  Nor did he repudiate the dreadful police riots in Chicago against peaceful demonstrators at the Democratic Convention.  So I voted for Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther who ran on the Peace and Freedom ticket.  Cleaver had no chance of winning, but this action made me feel righteous.  However by doing it, I helped make Richard Nixon president – an outcome I deplored. 

         I felt guilty about this action of mine for years.  I never believed that Humphrey was nearly as bad as Nixon.  Nixon’s presidency was a national disaster, culminating in Watergate.  Nor do I believe that Nixon was nearly as bad as Donald Trump is, although there are interesting parallels between them.  In both Watergate and Trump’s attempt to get the president of Ukraine to give him dirt on Biden, the cover-ups are almost worse than the actions. 

Just as Humphrey was superior to Nixon, so Biden is far better than Trump.  Equating the two, for whatever reasons, is a false and dangerous identification.  It could make Trump president for a second term, further eroding democracy in the United States.

         Some people believe that evil-doers should be allowed to obtain power, because then voters will see how dreadful they are and revolt against them.  This tactic was tried in Weimar Germany in the early 1930s.  Some members of the powerful German Socialist Party advocated this strategy against the Nazis, calling it “Socialist Defeatism.”  I think we all know how that turned out.

         In conclusion, it’s vitally important to vote – even if the candidate isn’t your favorite, even if you object to some of their views or positions, even if you don’t like him or her.  The alternative is so much worse.