Let’s hope Biden heals divisions at home and abroad
IT’S only a small exaggeration to say that the future shape of the free world will be decided at 5pm tomorrow. That’s midday in Washington DC – the moment Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in as President and Vice President of the USA.
Even if you ignore the antics of the mob that stormed the Capitol building this month, or the behaviour of Donald Trump before and since that shameful day, Mr Biden and Ms Harris will be leading a deeply divided nation. Mr Trump polled more than 74 million votes to Mr Biden’s 81 million.
Some pundits have argued that the new president’s election shows a nation looking to shut the door on the aberration of the Trump years. But the figures don’t back that argument.
Mr Trump remains popular with a large number of voters. It’s easy to imagine how, had he not been poleaxed by Covid19, he could have been set to be sworn in for his second term.
So as Mr Biden makes his inauguration speech tomorrow, it will be the most important of his life, signalling what we can expect – or what the new president expects – over the coming four years.
FAR more than any setpiece ceremony in our own politics, a US inaugural address sets the tone for a presidency. Who doesn’t remember John F Kennedy’s inauguration speech, 60 years ago tomorrow: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”?
Similarly, Mr Trump’s “America First” speech was perhaps the only one he has made that is actually useful as a guide to his thinking. (It was famously described by George W Bush as “some weird s**t”.)
That’s why Mr Biden’s speech matters. If his presidency is going to heal a divided nation he needs to start the process at his inauguration. It is in all our interests that he succeeds. The US has been the greatest force for good in the history of humankind, a beacon of freedom, liberty and prosperity.
For many decades after the Second World War we took its global role for granted, but there has always been an isolationist strand within its culture. Increasingly that strand has become part of the mainstream.
But the only beneficiaries of an inward-looking and weakened US are the likes of China, Russia and other enemies of freedom across the planet. We of all people should know that.
We may have stood alone when the Nazis overran Europe but it was only the entry of the US into the war that allowed us to defeat the Third Reich. And while Russia played its part, afterwards the US leadership of Nato was pivotal in resisting the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact’s drive into Europe.
Economically, too, the global economy needs a prosperous, open-minded US. It needs an America sufficiently at ease with itself to regard its global role as a boon not a burden.
This is especially vital for us as we find our way post-Brexit.
Take relations with China. The EU’s proposed investment deal, agreed last month, is merely the latest and largest example of how we cannot rely on our neighbours to stand up to China. Too often they ignore long-term strategic sense for short-term sweeteners.
If we are to resist a general capitulation to Beijing we need the US to stand firm. Mr Trump deserves credit for focusing on this, but Mr Biden will need to follow a similar path, even if his language and style may be less confrontational.
In the wake of Mr Trump’s attempts to remain in office after his defeat, there have been misguided comments condemning Theresa May and Boris Johnson for their attempts to forge a good relationship with him. Such criticism is ludicrous.
It is important for any British prime minister to have as good a relationship as possible with our allies – and especially with the President of the US.
REPORTS claim the Biden team regard Boris with distaste, both because the two men’s characters and styles are so very different but also because of Mr Johnson’s rudeness towards President Obama during the Brexit referendum.
But you can bet Boris will be going out of his way – quite rightly – to forge a relationship with the new president.
You can equally bet that Mr Biden will be doing the same. Because in the world of political leadership, serious figures know that personality clashes can be a dangerous irrelevance.
Let’s focus on what really matters. Tomorrow the greatest democracy on Earth will show how, despite everything that has happened of late, it is ready for the peaceful transfer of power on which everything is built. Let’s hope it goes well, as US stability is good for us, too.
‘The global economy needs a prosperous, open-minded US’