While we wait through this strangest interregnum in American presidential history, we asked a wide-ranging group of 12 writers and thinkers to take time and give us their first considered thoughts on the results of the 2020 election, and what they mean for the incoming Administration. The diverse list of contributors includes Obama Administration officials, advisers to Senators Clinton and Sanders, historians, activists, and more. Some lessons they took were political, some historical, some personal—all will help our understanding of this election and its consequences.