Election Night Is Over. The Struggle Continues.

Days after a historic presidential election that was projected to have the highest voter turnout since 1900, the outcome is still uncertain and will be decided by narrow margins. Though former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to be closing in on the 270 electoral votes that the U.S. election process requires to win its highest office, sitting president Donald Trump was prematurely declaring victory, filing lawsuits and inflaming supporters, some of them armed, to stop the count in Pennsylvania, where he was ahead, and to keep counting in Arizona, where he was behind.

There is still so much to sort out and seek to understand—why more white women who showed up to vote on election day appeared to choose to support Trump over Biden, and by a bigger margin than in 2016 according to some early exit polls, and why voters motivated by the economy failed to see how integral a high quality childcare infrastructure is to the economy’s health, choosing Trump, who has no plan for childcare or the care economy, over Biden, who has proposed a $775 billion one.

Still, in the face of such bitter division and uncertainty, and with democratic institutions at stake, there are some impactful state and local outcomes when it comes to work, care and equity: voters across the country approved a host of worker and family-supportive initiatives, from paid family and medical leave in Colorado to universal preschool in Multnomah County, in Portland Oregon, to a $15 minimum wage in Florida. Voters in Mississippi decided to redesign their state flag, which included the Confederate battle flag, a divisive symbol of white supremacy, with a magnolia blossom. And a record number of women from both parties and LGBTQ candidates ran for office at every level, a vital step in building a representative government that is responsive to all people in this vibrant, multi-racial, multicultural democracy.

Those victories help to bolster the case we’ve long made at The Better Life Lab—supporting families, caregiving and caregivers, and creating the conditions for families and workers to thrive are universal American values that should not be limited to nor defined by any one political party. And while, to some, it may seem contradictory that, for instance, a majority of voters in Florida would vote to send Republican Trump back to the White House and also vote by sizeable margins to raise the minimum wage—an issue more associated with Democrats and progressives—it shows that the everyday reality of our lives and those of our families, friends, neighbors, colleagues and associates matters in moving us to action.

As we think ahead and wonder how we can heal this divided nation, with yawning gaps between those living in rural and urban areas, among races, ethnicities, and genders, between the powerful and the powerless, perhaps that is where we start. Close to home, telling the real stories of our lives and realizing just how much we share in our dreams of a better, fairer future.