Winning is easier than governing

If, when all the votes are counted, Joe Biden wins the election, he will face a deeply divided country, a Senate in Republican hands, and fierce demands from a fractious party — one that united behind him to defeat Donald Trump, but would press competing priorities on the new president.

The only fraud committed this political season has been by the president himself, who falsely and frequently claimed the electionwas being stolen by his foes. Even if he finally leaves office in January, his unrelenting undermining of our democratic institutions will embitter his followers and embolden themto see Biden as an illegitimate president.

Resistance to Biden would be bolstered by the Senate, led by Mitchmcconnell, a shrewd guerilla chieftainwho has just won a new six- year term. Republicans are sure to harass Biden at every turn and thwart his key initiatives, including attempts to restock the federal judiciary with liberal- minded judges.

Moreover, Biden would take office with a very thin mandate for a substantive agenda. His coremessage always was, “I’m not Trump,” which is hardly the basis for a robust legislative program, and the narrowness of his victory would only compound his weakness.

Then there’s the Democratic Party itself. It’s a source of political strength that Democrats can reelect a careful moderate like Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and a firebrand democratic socialist like Rep. Alexandriaocasio- Cortez of Newyork. But that diverse range of views becomes a real problem when it comes to governing the country.

John F. Harris and Holly Otterbein, writing in Politico during the Democratic convention this summer, put it this way: “One way to view contemporary Democrats is like a dysfunctional family that will all be together this week for a wedding. The family photographmight look quite festive, but there are darker currents running beneath the image— frequently irritable ideological and demographic splits that have been on public display over the past two election cycles.”

One glaring example of those splits showed up during the last presidential debate, when Biden — under pressure from the party’s left wing to embrace drastic environmental measures — foolishly answered “yes” when Trump asked, “Would you close down the oil industry?”

Embattled Democratic lawmakers from energy- producing states immediately rejected

Biden’s view, and the candidate himself spent the rest of the campaign trying to clean up his ownmess with voters in Pennsylvania, where the American oil industry started in 1859.

If andwhendemocratic initiatives get buried in the Senate, the frustration level among party factions is likely to rise, the divisions are likely to grow sharper, and the recriminations can only get louder.

There are different ways to describe those factions. Tom Edsall in the New York Times, quoting work by Kabir Khanna of CBS, outlines three roughly equal segments: very liberal, somewhat liberal and moderate to conservative.

Rep. Conor Lamb, who won a House seat in a conservative area of western Pennsylvania, broke it down differently for Politico: “The dividemay be between thosewho think of themselves in terms of an ideology andamore formal set of policies that they elevate above everything else, and others who think of themselves more like problem- solvers or engineers or architects or pragmatists.”

Biden clearly fits in the “somewhat liberal” or “problem- solvers” categories, but the pressure fromthe party’s left wing will be relentless. Only 1 in 4 Americans described themselves as liberal in exit polls this year, but followers of senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabethwarren still believe— despite all evidence to the contrary— that this is a liberal country ready for a massive overhaul of basic institutions.

The first battle will be over cabinet appointments, and just before the election, Thewashington Post predicted “ferocious fights should Biden win, because the appointments would dictate the direction and shape of a Biden presidency.” One critical flashpoint is the post of Treasury secretary, for which the left is pushingwarren, even though she’s widely despised by the country’s financial industry.

The second battle will be over legislative priorities. While Biden tried to separate himself during the campaign fromradical proposals like “defunding the police” or “Medicare for all,” the split between progressives and pragmatistswill threaten to disrupt the party unity created by the universal fear and loathing of Trump. Further divisive battles loomover liberal proposals to expand the Supreme Court and end the filibuster in the Senate.

Biden could well find out that winning the election was a whole lot easier than governing the country.