Finally! The brutal election marathon is almost over. At times, it seemed like it would never end, but at last, we’re limping to the finish line. Today is Election Day, the day when the die will finally be cast.

But hold on. It’s not really the finish, it’s just the start. As citizens, now is the time we must steel ourselves to deal with — and support — whatever the election outcome turns out to be.

If the electorate validates our preference for the presidency, roughly half of us will be happy — albeit with some apprehension about what’s next — but very happy indeed. The other half will be angry, furious, in fact, at both the winning candidate and at the nincompoops who did not validate our choice.

After the months of this nasty election season, haven’t we all come to truly despise the other side?

Wouldn’t it be nice if, post-election, there was some magic app that would allow both sides to undo all the hysterical campaign rhetoric we’ve been firing at one another? There is not, of course, and unfortunately, the ill-considered trash talk will live on in many minds, and partisans on the losing side will do their best to keep it alive. They’ll call it “resistance.”

A helpful alternative might be the combination of a gracious concession statement from the presidential losing candidate and an equally gracious acceptance statement from the winner — with each pledging to move on from their take-no-prisoners pre-election diatribes. Those sentiments won’t come easily, but it is a message that must be heard, far and wide, both by their supporters and the electorate at large.

I think it’s fair to say that the 2024 presidential election was among the worst ever — bitter, angry, and divisive. As one glaring example, a former U.S. president stands accused of being a fascist and is routinely compared to Hitler. Attendees at his final election week rally were likened to Nazi supporters at a 1939 NYC gathering.

Mud-slinging is a time-honored routine in U.S. political campaigns, but this year’s Nazi/fascist accusations are absurd. Americans in the last century made enormous sacrifices to rid the world of the Nazi menace — invoking that label as a political theme in 2024 is an insult to their memory. Perhaps Democrat political strategists felt that doing so might turn the tide in their favor (and we may find out tonight that it did so), but they should have known better.

If the 2024 election winner is Donald Trump, there can be no denying the remarkable resilience he displayed in this election. Battered by political lawfare (three trials and more pending), two assassination attempts, and a cacophony of derision, Trump rode through it all seemingly unfazed and ran a highly energized campaign. In the past few weeks, his opponents have floated the idea that the aging Trump is exhausted by his campaign activities. Who’s kidding whom? He’s been running circles around them.

And should Kamala Harris win, there can be no denying that she far outperformed expectations after being drafted just months ago by the Party panicked over President Joe Biden’s evident cognitive decline. She was certainly helped by friendly media and a billion dollars in big-donor donations.

Candidate Harris has been pledging “a new way forward” if elected. Her instincts will probably be for that way forward to be a turn even further to the left, but that could be a big mistake. On the heels of the faltering Biden-Harris administration, storm clouds are everywhere. Examples:

• The U.S. economy: Inflation is not in check. And last week’s job report was ugly.
• The Biden/EPA Electric Vehicle mandate is not working. U.S. auto manufacturers are losing gobs of money in making cars that Americans don’t want, and they are hemorrhaging jobs — all with zero net benefit to the climate.
• She has yet to propose a sensible game plan for the border or for dealing with the tens of millions of unvetted immigrants her administration allowed in.

On the foreign policy front, an arena where she has little experience, there is trouble as well. But for that matter, it will prove difficult for Trump too. He has casually promised to end the Ukraine-Russia war “overnight” even before his inauguration, but he hasn’t told us how. With North Korea in the mix (a world war in the offing?), that situation is getting uglier by the day.

Meanwhile, the Middle East powder keg simmers, with the U.S. position complicated by a vocal and influential block of the American Left that staunchly opposes Israel’s actions. And in the other hemisphere, China awaits the opportune moment to move against Taiwan.

Yes, the election is just the start. By tonight, one campaign team will be back-slapping and high-fiving, while the other team will be disconsolately cleaning up loose ends and moving on. But whoever wins the presidential of the 2024 election will “win” a tidal wave of daunting, immediate challenges, both domestic and international. And we, citizens of this nation, will be counting on that winner to dive right in and navigate us through the mess.

As a nation, our greatest vulnerability — and biggest mistake — will be to hang on to our pre-election hostilities and remain sharply divided, each hoping that the other side will fail. But if our newly elected president — he or she — fails, we all do.

It’s time to buck up, America, and start pulling together.