Americans spoke.
They voted this election day in anger and disgust but with purpose. They spoke up for health care and affordable housing, for sane gas prices and utility bills, for food prices they can afford. But they spoke up for more—for decency and a roll back of overt, daily corruption. For a country built by immigrants from its very inception. For a democracy, where the rule of law matters and applies to all—men and women; black, white and brown; gay and straight; individuals and families worthy, regardless of their education, wealth, religious beliefs, ethnicity, race or physical abilities to respect, kindness and a place in community.
This was an overwhelming victory for a political party, the Democrats, not terribly well-liked by those who supported it. But more so it was an overwhelming victory for the American people. We want a new start before the gains of a century or more are wiped off the map by our egomaniac in chief. We don’t want arches or reflecting pools, more presidential golf courses, more cryptocurrency, more graft.
The election reaffirmed for me that Americans are fundamentally a decent people. We all hold biases and even prejudices, like it or not. But at our front curbs and stoops, we meet and greet neighbors as people, regardless of their skin tone, their religious beliefs, their net worth and, yes, even their political beliefs. (At least we do, if they have a dog who likes ours.)
The final numbers of this election will sort out over the coming days. It already is being hailed as likely the biggest blue wave since 1974, the second Nixon midterm. Democrats will hold 54 Senate seats. Or 55. Or maybe even 56. They will have flipped six or seven governorships, including Texas and Georgia. They will be represented in the U.S. Senate in every region of the country. Their House majority, which as I write stands at 228, likely will rise to 245 or even 250 when the dust settles. a gain of about 40 seats.
More striking to me, however, is who holds these seats.
Americans elected senators and governors in their late 30s and 40s and 50s (although my state chose an octogenarian, progressive veteran who is too old for my tastes). They elected a governor in Ohio abused as a child and mocked for it by her opponent. They elected a senator in Iowa who was a para-Olympian and campaigned from a wheelchair. They elected a logger in Maine to the U.S. Senate and the pastor of a mega-church in Kansas. They elected a Native American to the Senate from Minnesota and may yet elect an African-American from the deep red, southern state of Mississippi.
They elected a Muslim-American in Michigan smeared as a terrorist and non-American. They elected a Latina governor of Texas and an African-American, woman governor of Georgia. And they elected a 37-year-old Texan, part populist, part preacher, raised by a single mother with a closet for his nursery as a babe. He ran against Elon Musk and the $212 million Musk donated to defeat him. And James Talarico beat Musk, and the state’s long-term conservative incumbent attorney general, in part by casting the race as David vs. Goliath, with the voters of Texas as his slingshot.
Meanwhile, in my Cape Cod home, I am now represented by a 24-year-old state Assemblyman who took on a long-entrenched Republican, well-liked in my community, but nonetheless tied in some ways to Trump’s party and brand.
What an extraordinary group of candidates and now new elected officials. What a diverse group in a country in which the president has done everything he can to deport people to countries they’ve never set foot in, to erase their history—our history, to intimidate, bully and threaten anyone who stands up to him. In truth, relatively few college presidents, members of Congress, business leaders or law firms have. The Supreme Court has largely crumbled, but the court system, federal and state, beneath that high court has not.
Nor have the American people.
On Nov. 3, 2026, they made their voices heard.
Now Democrats must put aside their foolish internal divisions (Centrist? Democratic socialist? It’s really not that simple). They must work together to build a program for the American people. They must reach out to Republicans like Lisa Murkowski who might help, need to help for their own sense of decency and survival.
As a start, the Congress needs to restore cuts in Medicaid and food stamps, find ways to bring down the cost of housing and build more, shore up Social Security, hold this president accountable for his war and its devastating consequences, stop those blatantly skimming billions from our taxes and treasury for their personal enrichment, restore a sense of justice for all. And listen to the American people.
We, the people, spoke. We want effective policy and laws applied to all. Speecchifying alone won’t cut it after Jan. 1. Only a gradual march to restore what is lost and find new ways to build rather than dismantle our country will matter.
I bought a T-Shirt in Provincetown, Mass., the other day when we visited with friends. It has a map of the United States on it and these words. “Built By immigrants. You Can’t Deport History.”
Nor can you destroy it, at least not if we, the people, continue to stand together.