Biden must summon all his skills to bridge divide
No need for soul-searching among Republicans. They wilfully ignored Trump’s indiscretions for four years and were not punished for it.
Republicans regain control of the Senate and continue to obstruct the Biden regime. The same legislative gridlock that hobbled Barack Obama when Biden was his vice-president await the new boss.
Divided to the end, America appears to have elected a president who promised to bind up the nation’s wounds and heal its soul.
Wish them luck. Actually, wish them providential guidance and favour: they’ll need it.
As the world’s most powerful nation limps to the finish line of an astonishingly partisan and confrontational election campaign (it may take months to settle all the voting disputes, legal and electoral), America’s friends and allies watch aghast — clinging to the hope that rests in president-elect Joe Biden.
It took several nights of election results before the networks declared Biden the winner over Donald Trump, sending one of politics most polarizing figures into retirement after one term.
Sleepy Joe, Uncle Joe, Grandpa Joe: as huggable a politician as someone of his stature can be; the oldest, at 77, to ever assume the presidency; gentlemanly and respected. All things considered, Joe Biden may be the best suited for this Mission near-Impossible.
How do you heal America when its constituent parts are so invested in splintering along fault lines of race, class, religion, culture?
While the irascible, divisive incumbent Trump closed out the campaign with a fearmongering barrage that was noteworthy, even for a man who knows no rhetorical bounds, Biden’s closing arguments seemed naively simple.
As the campaigns barnstormed through battleground states in the twilight of the contest, critics slammed Biden for his positive “unite the nation” message. It seemed to play into Trump’s depiction of the Democratic candidate as weak and near comatose. Biden should attack Trump, counter his charges of socialism, point out the difference between the good guys and the deplorables backing Trump, confront the enemy and not be singing kumbaya, some opined.
As it turns out, Biden’s closing argument to the American people — a winning proposition — may be the prescription so obviously needed for a republic hopelessly divided.
In spirit and temperament — a builder where Trump destroys, a healer where Trump injures — Joe Biden is just what the doctor ordered for a sick and ailing country. And sick she is, our neighbour and friend.
Leading up to Tuesday’s vote, gun shops ran out of bullets in New York and other states; gun licence applications spiked; Costco ran out of toilet paper; suburban housewives ordered husbands to buy freezers for the garage and stock it up with food; expat Canadians updated their travelling papers and called home to ensure their room was still available.
And everywhere there was tension, stress, fear and loathing following months of antiBlack racism protests and COVID-19 infection.
I know because relatives and friends from California, New York, Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois and Michigan told me in chat groups that they have never felt more personally afraid and corporately concerned about their safety and the prospects for peaceful coexistence with neighbours and colleagues.
“We are not safe. We don’t feel safe,” said lawyer friend from D.C., where her predominantly white and progressive neighbours promised, “Don’t worry. We’ll protect you.”
“If he gets re-elected I’m going to have to move back North. I’m serious. I have it worked out in my head,” she said.
Following an election night that seemed certain to deliver a doomsday scenario of Trump redux, on steroids from the embrace of nearly 70 million voters, America woke up the day after to a slow release of late election results that pulled many back from the brink of despair.
It was an ugly win, but a win nevertheless for Biden’s Democrats. Satisfying, it wasn’t — like a last-second escape on a tip-in basket when your basketball team expected to blow out the opponent.
Anyone who was repulsed by Trump’s kind of politics — the obvious race-baiting, lies, disrespect of opponents, bullying and xenophobic demagoguery — longed for a stout rejection of a man they felt had all the disqualifying characteristics of the leader of the free world.
This was no repudiation. Trump and his acolytes will interpret it as an embrace and affirmation. Not surprisingly, Trump refused to immediately acknowledge defeat.
“We are in a state of shock because we thought Trump won (in 2016) because of Hillary hatred and Democrats staying home,” said an Illinois lawyer in one of our chat groups. “But what is shocking is that more people have come out in record numbers. We thought it was because people were sick and tired of this demonic (President). But noooo. These people are coming out in support of the devil.”
One might dismiss the 2016 Trump win as a mistake, a slip up by the American people who never could have anticipated the chaos and buffoonery and mindful demolition of civil norms around common political discourse and decency. Re-election is no mistake: it’s who you are. A near-election is almost the same. Almost.
What were Trump supporters voting for — when Trump had repeatedly presented himself as racist, misogynist, mendacious, intemperate, hateful, unrestrained and one who sows the seeds of division?
Trump traded in resentment and grievances and he had willing buyers. He offered what so many Americans sought, relished even; they believed that America could still be the old America where white was might, if not right; and minorities were content with being “less than” and “the other.”
Those days are over — whether or not middle America or uneducated whites recognize it and feed off the false narratives spun by manipulators like Trump.
But knowing it and living it are two different things. What Biden seems to understand is the grievances are real — on both sides. He must summon his best skills to bridge the numerous divides. His mission is to help his nation listen to each other.
On the domestic front alone there is climate change, taxes, race relations, culture wars, health care and the intractable conflicts with the other branches of government, especially the U.S. Senate.
Many Democrats will want their pound of flesh. For example, they may want to expand and stack the Supreme Court to counter Trump’s late-term appointment of another conservative. They’ll want to go after Trump to prosecute him for a laundry list of crimes and misdemeanours.
How Biden responds will define his term. More importantly, it may lay the groundwork for a truce, followed by peace.
The world — his enemies and allies — can’t avoid watching.