One week today could see the smugfest of all smugfests.  If the polls are correct, America could be on the verge of a Democratic landslide.  Whatever Donald Trump has going in his favour, his bombast, and above all his lack of attention to a Covid-19 pandemic that continues to ascend ever higher at the worst possible time for a president, now appear close to ruining him.   That quiet majority, whoever they are, seems to be turning away from the Republican leader.And lest we forget, COVID, more than any political movement, has succeeded in halting populism in its tracks.  Boris Johnson in Britain, far-right president Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, and Donald Trump – all these populist leaders have themselves been victims of the pandemic despite their refusal to acknowledge it.  In America, COVID-19 will dominate next week's election.It is precisely at this moment that the Democratic Party is at its most vulnerable.  Should the party win soundly, there will be no end to the gloating – in Canada, too, where we have turned smugness towards our troubled neighbours to the south into something of an art form.  If leftists and centrists aren't careful, they could turn this election into a never-ending partisan war that will last for decades.We've seen this before.  When Barack Obama won his historic first election in 2007, the crowing progressive elements in America revelled in trashing the conservative legacy of war and recession that had plagued George W. Bush's tenure.  Republicans never forgot it, and they put all their efforts into winning the mid-terms two years later and also made plans for the White House.  The success of those mid-terms bolstered Republican emotions, and they did everything in their power to check Obama's persuasive influence and deny him the opportunity to enact the legislation he had run on.Now, as Democrats stand to pick up a significant number of seats following four years of dysfunctional politics that left the country totally ill-equipped to come together in a universal pandemic response, they face a similar moment.  Yet the likely fury of Republicans following November 3 could spoil any chance to help Biden win his “president of red and blue states” promise.Demographically, the future is with the Democrats, so they should build the future America they envision instead of ripping up half the country as the prize of power.  The country is arranged in a fashion that benefits Republicans electorally.  In the last election, more people voted for Democrats than Republicans in the senatorial races.  And yet Republicans hold a comfortable majority in the Senate because of advantages the party holds in rural regions.  The Republican Party has won power while holding smaller portions of plurality for this same reason.  It can't last forever.  But, for those millions of Republican voters, a Biden sweep will be a bitter pill to swallow – a loss that could become an angry conservative juggernaut.Middle-class workers voted Republican after watching four decades of Democratic leadership in the House and the Executive Mansion.  That leadership created a fully endorsed rise of globalization which eventually led to the shifting of jobs overseas, virtually gutting the American labour force.  They watched their family farms shrink to nothing and their manufacturing centres crater – all for a liberal agenda that appeared to benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.  Donald Trump has done the same thing, but their anger was born under earlier Democratic administrations, and that fire of torment remains.The irony of Democratic hubris has been noted by more than a few commentators.  They  marvel that liberal Americans, who would never disparage blacks, same-sex marriage, or minorities, would take to mocking and shaming Republicans who fear their livelihoods and family savings have slipped away.  Democrats are just as susceptible to the denigration of other citizens as Republicans, and if they make it a characteristic of their victory, Biden will face gale-force winds coming directly at him.The Republican establishment must begin moving on from the Trump era, but that won't happen if they are hounded at every step.  There are millions of moderate Republicans in every state of the country just as capable of decency, respect, and compromise as any Democrat.  Biden knows this through practice, having worked with such leaders as the late Republican John McCain.  He lived as a senator in an era where making deals across the aisle was still possible, even preferable, in times of great national and international pressure.COVID has proved to be the greatest challenge of our lifetime.  From it should emerge a more civil politics, a bipartisan movement, a better post-pandemic world.  Sadly, the people that could ruin that possibility could just as likely be the ridiculing Left as the angry Right.  Biden deserves better, should he win.  America deserves better.  Whether that day arrives or not will be seen in the months following the election, not on the big day next week at this time.  We can only hope and pray that the victors display a  respectful reserve instead of what they are displaying right now.Glen Pearson was a career professional firefighter and is a former Member of Parliament from southwestern Ontario. He and his wife adopted three children from South Sudan and reside in London, Ontario. He has been the co-director of the London Food Bank for 32 years. He writes regularly for the London Free Press and also shares his views on a blog entitled “The Parallel Parliament“. Follow him on twitter @GlenPearson.