The US Election: Historic Media Moments
Like millions around the world, I spent last week with my eyes fixed on media coverage of the US election. To call the race a nail-biter is euphemistic. It was a four-day bodily consumption, spent refreshing my Twitter feed and the CNN landing page, watching vote-count percentages in key states stagnate and slowly tick up, waiting for the ‘red mirage’ to give way to the ‘blue shift’ and for a decisive call to be made in a bold headline. These four days gave my eyes their fill of this epic civic process, and it was more fill than I ever wanted my eyes to have.
Despite its tensions, the week yielded choice media moments I would not trade for easier viewing. The most poignant is the historic image of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris giving her speech at the Chase Centre in Wilmington, Delaware, in her white pantsuit and white pussy-bow blouse.
Vanessa Friedman, chief fashion critic of The New York Times, explains the iconic and redemptive nature of Harris’s sartorial choices, underscoring the proud suffragist history of the white suit and the ironic ‘reclaiming’ of the pussy bow from First Lady Melania Trump, who wore it in response to the vulgar, misogynistic Access Hollywood scandal that failed to forestall her husband’s rise to power. This bright image of Harris owning these clothes and her great achievement - the first woman, woman of colour and child of immigrants to be elected Vice President - is a soothing balm for the beleaguered soul and senses, and her smile is a joyous flash of light cutting through five years of darkness.
Another delightful moment was in encountering the now-viral face swap video, America: Endgame, created by editor and filmmaker, John Handem Piette. It came into my Twitter feed as a retweet by a celebrated core actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mark Ruffalo, a political activist who plays the Hulk.
You do not need to be a devoted fan of the MCU to appreciate the epic narrative of this scene, and how true to life it is at this moment. Prominent Democratic figures appear in formation as a league of superheroes, uniting behind Joe Biden as Captain America in this ultimate, apocalyptic moment, to fight the powerful villain, Trump as Thanos, who threatens to destroy democracy. To watch these Democrats assemble as a team is deeply moving, as that is precisely what they did, and what America and the world needed them to do. Most poignant is the appearance of the state of Georgia as the fictional Wakanda nation, with Barack Obama as Black Panther, flanked by voting rights activist Stacey Abrams as Okoye and Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as Shuri. Behind these three, a legion of Black warriors chant ‘All votes matter!’ in unison - a pointed shout-out to the Black Lives Matter movement that is undoubtedly the crux and thrust of Biden’s win. The rush of the army as mail-in ballots, sweeping in to shift the fate of the battle, offers a divine moment of catharsis. It is a genius work of art and media gift.
A final moment of powerful effect was a calm one that went mostly unnoticed amidst the noise and tumult. In the quieter hours of Friday, November 6th, when the race seemed over but had not yet been called, a plain message was tweeted by The Guardian's world affairs editor, Julian Borger, communicating a CNN report that the Federal Aviation Administration was clearing airspace over Biden’s Delaware home.
How to express what this gesture signalled, and how much it meant, in Day Three of waiting for the blue shift to be true, and for the nightmare to finally be over. This ethereal moment of clearing air signalled the mechanisms of democracy and government were working, and the outcome was evident. It meant that despite Trump’s denial, power was shifting away from him. The clamour gave way to silence. In this quiet clearing, there was a blessed calmness - a restoration of worldly order and of long-lost peace of mind.
These are just a few media moments etched in my mind following a momentous week in the history of the US and the world.