Here’s what Joe Biden wants to do as president — and what could stop him

Joe Biden won the White House with one of the most progressive agendas of any major party presidential candidate in history.

But his ability to implement any of it will depend on whether he can govern a divided nation through what he called a “perfect storm” of four crises, starting with the coronavirus pandemic that has taken more than 230,000 American

lives.

The three others: “The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change,” Biden said when he accepted the Democratic nomination.

The issues behind those crises were already part of his agenda. Biden promised to address them as “an American president. ... I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did.”

One challenge that Biden didn’t anticipate: a Republican Senate. Many preelection polls had Democrats taking control of the chamber, but those prospects dimmed when the GOP won several competitive races. The Democrats’ slim chance at a majority will depend on runoffs for both seats in Georgia in January.

Unifying the nation — or even Democrats — will be a challenge. Biden weaved through the campaign without alienating either those on his left or the Never Trumpers to his right. For at least as long as President Trump’s legal challenges to the election process continue, that detente will last. But assuming those challenges ultimately fail and Trump leaves the scene, it is likely to vanish.

Biden urged Americans to put the rhetoric of the campaign behind them.

“We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare,” he said Friday. “The purpose of our politics isn’t total, unrelenting, unending warfare. No. The purpose of our politics, the work of the nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict — but to solve problems.”

But whether in the majority or a substantial minority, Senate Republicans led by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell will try to jam Biden’s agenda, much as they did to the last Democrat in the White House,

Barack Obama.

Biden will have to work with progressive Democrats who supported him in the general election but have promised to pull him to the left on health care, taxes and the environment.

Here is what Biden hopes to focus on:

Ending the pandemic: Biden promised to “level with the American people” about what needs to be done and to “follow the science” to find answers, not just for public health but also to get the economy in order.

This is the issue that got Biden elected and the one he will be judged on foremost. If he fails to pull the nation out of this crisis, it will doom the rest of his agenda.