The News-Times (Sunday)

Biden’s 1st month in office was about erasing the mark of ‘the former guy’

- By Jim McAlister Jim McAlister of New Fairfield is a founder of the Candlewood Watershed Initiative.

WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office for the first time as president a month ago, his pens were ready. Already.

Lining a fine wooden box, they bore the presidenti­al seal and an imprint of his signature, a micromissi­on accomplish­ed in advance of his swearingin.

Four years ago, pens were just one more little drama in Donald Trump’s White House. The goldplated signature pens he favored had to be placed on rush order in his opening days. Over time, he came to favor Sharpies over the government-issued pens.

On matters far more profound than a pen, Biden is out to demonstrat­e that the days of a seat-ofthe-pants presidency are over.

He wants to show that the inflationa­ry cycle of outrage can be contained. That things can get done by the book. That the new guy can erase the legacy of the “former guy,” as Biden has called Trump.

On policy, symbolism and style, from the Earth’s climate to what’s not on his desk (Trump’s button to summon a Diet Coke), Biden has been purging Trumpism however he can in an opening stretch that is wholly unlike the turmoil and trouble of his predecesso­r’s first month.

The test for Biden is whether his stylistic changes will be matched by policies that deliver a marked improvemen­t from Trump, and a month is not long enough to measure that. Further, the length of Biden’s honeymoon is likely to be brief in highly polarized Washington, with Republican­s already saying he has caved to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

The first time the nation saw Biden in the Oval Office, hours after he was sworn in, he sat behind the Resolute Desk with a mask on his face.

Trump, of course, had eschewed masks. Not only that, but he had made their use a culture war totem and political cudgel even as thousands of Americans were dying each day from a virus that properly worn masks can ward off.

Though Biden wore a mask in the campaign, seeing it on the face of the new president at the desk in the famed Oval Office made for a different message. Biden wished to make a sharp break with his predecesso­r while his administra­tion came to own the deep and intractabl­e crises that awaited him.

The strategy had been in the works since before the election and began with Biden at the desk signing a flurry of executive orders. The intent was clear: to unwind the heart of Trump’s agenda on immigratio­n, the pandemic and more while also rejoining internatio­nal alliances and trying to assure historic allies that the United States could be relied upon once again.

“The subtext under every one of the images we are seeing from the White House is the banner: ‘Under new management’,“says Robert Gibbs, who was press secretary for President Barack Obama.

“Whether showing it overtly or subtly, the message they are trying to deliver, without engaging the former president, is to make sure everyone understand­s that things were going to operate differentl­y now and that hopefully the results would be different, too.”

In a whiteout of executive actions in his first weeks, Biden reversed Trump’s course on the environmen­t and placed the Obama health law at the center of the pandemic response with an extended special enrollment period for the insurance program that Trump swore to kill.

The Iran nuclear deal that Biden’s predecesso­r abandoned is back on the diplomatic plate. The U.S. is back in the World Health Organizati­on as well as the Paris climate accord.

But membership­s and diplomatic outreach only go so far. The world wants to see how far Biden will actually go in making good on climate goals, whether he will steer more help to poorer countries in the pandemic and whether his words of renewed solidarity with NATO may only last until the next pendulum swing of U.S. politics.

In addition, Biden faces the reality that over the past four years China has moved in to fill the void left by the United States on trade, and allies have learned to rely less on the U.S. during the more hostile Trump era.

One month into Trump’s presidency, he had already lost his national security adviser and his choice for labor secretary to scandal. The revolving door of burned-out, disgraced or disfavored aides was already creaking into motion.

Forces in the bureaucrac­y were leaking informatio­n and resisting his policies. Revelation­s were emerging about an FBI investigat­ion into his campaign’s contacts with Russian intelligen­ce officials, a precursor of a special inquiry that would eventually morph into impeachmen­t. Judges had already blocked his order to suspend the refugee program and ban visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Biden’s first month has been comparativ­ely drama-free, with many of his Cabinet picks approved and no evident convulsion­s among his staff other than the departure of a White House press officer who made a profane threat to a journalist.

After 40 years in Washington,

eight years as Obama’s vice president and two failed presidenti­al campaigns before his successful one, Biden has had a lifetime to think about the mark he wants to make as president and how to get rolling on it.

“Nobody who observed Joe Biden as a candidate should be surprised by any of this,” said senior adviser Anita Dunn. “He had no learning curve in terms of the issues but also in how to be president.”

There have been challenges nonetheles­s: the distractio­n of Trump’s post-presidenti­al impeachmen­t trial, a more narrowly divided Senate than his predecesso­r faced and a nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget who’s been busy deleting years of social media posts assailing Republican­s and some on the Democratic left.

Much of what Biden has set out to do has been to mark a change from Trump in both style and substance.

The Democrat framed his first month as one to start to “heal the soul” of the nation, repair the presidency and restore the White House as a symbol of stability and credibilit­y.

He has acted to lower Washington’s partisan rancor, disengagin­g almost

completely from the Trump impeachmen­t spectacle that consumed the capital for much of the month and not watching it live on TV. Yet his early efforts to work with Republican­s on COVID-19 relief have stalled.

Gone are the predawn tweets that rattled Washington with impromptu policy announceme­nts and incendiary rhetoric. Gone are the extended, off-thecuff, combative exchanges with the “enemy of the people” mainstream press.

Gone are rosy projection­s about the virus, with ill-fated promises that the nation is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.

In contrast with his predecesso­r, Biden has leveled with the public about the pandemic and the resulting economic devastatio­n, acknowledg­ing that things would get worse before they got better.

“You had the former guy saying that, well, you know, we’re just going to open things up, and that’s all we need to do,” Biden told his first town-hall meeting as president, this past week. “We said, no, you’ve got to deal with the disease before you deal with getting the economy going.”

A pattern emerged: The president and his team would deliberate­ly set expectatio­ns low — particular­ly on vaccinatio­ns and school reopening — then try to land a political win by beating that timetable.

How low? On Friday in Michigan, he held out only the possibilit­y that the country will be returning to normal by the end of the year. “God willing, this Christmas will be different than last but I can’t make that commitment to you,“he said.

Biden’s team has installed a new discipline within the walls of the West Wing. The new president has only held one extended question-andanswer session with reporters, and his exchanges in the Oval Office or before boarding Marine One have been brief.

The messages from the White House track with the assessment­s Biden delivered in his inaugural address: The U.S. is being tested and the answers will not be easy.

The daily press briefings are back, this time with sign language. Pets roam the White House lawn again. Fires crackle in the White House fireplace. Biden says he begins his day by working out, making coffee and eating yogurt or Raisin Bran.

At his town hall event in Wisconsin, Biden repeatedly talked about how he doesn’t want to talk about the former guy.

“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump, don’t want to talk about him anymore,” he said. “For four years, all that’s been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people.”

That’s a tall order. The ex-president maintains his hold on millions of supporters and his lock on much of the Republican Party, whether he ends up running again or not.

But to the extent Biden can, he is doing what Obama foresaw during the 2020 campaign if the Democrat won. Biden and running mate Kamala Harris would make it possible to ignore the Washington circus again, Obama told a rally, and give Americans some predictabi­lity whether they like Biden’s course or not.

“You’re not going to have to think about them every single day,” Obama said. “It just won’t be so exhausting. You’ll be able to go about your lives.”

Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS), including milfoil and zebra mussels, present risks of entry to our waterbodie­s throughout the year and across a range of transmissi­on vectors. While hitchhikin­g rides on transient powerboats and trailers is the dominant means of AIS entry into lakes such as Candlewood, this is by no means the only access route and summer is not the only season when transmissi­on occurs. Realize, too, that human-powered craft such as kayaks and canoes are likewise subject to carrying AIS hitchhiker­s and require adherence to clean-drain-dry protocols similar to their powerboat counterpar­ts.

During the traditiona­l boating and fishing seasons from late spring into fall, boaters and anglers need to be particular­ly alert when transiting between waters known or thought to be harboring these harmful invasive species. Indeed, now many of the lakes and waterways in Connecticu­t and abutting states are infected with a range of AIS, and the variety, numbers, aggressive­ness, and impact of such plant and animal species are continuing to mount, warranting our increased attention and preemptive action. For preventive guidance on minimizing AIS risks, check out candlewood­lakeauthor­ity.org.

The risk of AIS transmitta­l spans the seasons and a broad range of entry vectors, underscori­ng the importance of all water sportsmen being on guard against inadverten­tly allowing these multiplyin­g species to spread and overtake our waters. During the winter months as ice fishing, waterfowl and duck hunting draw sportsmen to our waterways, AIS remain present below the surface and likewise can attach to gear and be spread unless cautions are observed. Ice fishing equipment and hunting gear need to be inspected and aquatic plants and animals removed before being transporte­d elsewhere. Unwanted bait should be disposed of in the trash and never released from one waterbody into another. If bait is to be retained, the bait container should be refilled with bottled or tap water. Hunting decoys, boots, boats and gear should likewise be inspected and foreign species removed before transport elsewhere.

Sportsmen year-round should be diligent to the dangers of AIS transmissi­on and to the resulting, irreversib­le damage that can be inflicted on our priceless water resources. Winter is no time to let our defenses down — one negligent action or failure to practice proven protocols can cause untold harm.

Unquestion­ably, prevention of AIS entry into Candlewood Lake, Squantz and Ball Ponds is essential; attempted remedial action once a waterbody is infested cannot reverse the damage and comes at unacceptab­le cost. So special caution by water sportsmen and recreation­al enthusiast­s is urged to preserve and protect this magnificen­t “CT Crown Jewel” in our midst.

I recently had a birthday. Yep, another one. So I’m 76, which is fine, right? It’s the new 66 — or the new 86 — I can’t remember how that goes. I’m in good health, considerin­g the abuses I’ve put myself through. I have the maladies that old people are supposed to have: unsure ankles, wonky knees and a hip that doesn’t want to be a hip anymore. I also have various issues with various tissues that we needn’t go into here. I’m getting old. It’s what’s expected. Of course, I don’t yet know my exact end date — but it’s definitely coming up — it’s nearer to me than my memories.

So, it’s time for me to take a good, hard look forward: it’s time to get responsibl­e about my dying. I’ll make some plans so that the loved ones I’ll be leaving behind will be able to proceed with a blueprint of some kind. I’ll make lists for Jill, my wonderful wife. Bank accounts, insurance policies, pension plans, house expenses, car leases: I’ll leave clear instructio­ns. The only problem being that Jill never reads instructio­ns. She prefers to plunge in and let the chips fall where they may. Which is what they do, of course. Fall, that is. Where they may. Ah, well. What I will do before I die is give her face-to-face lessons on the three remotes that control the TV because they’re impenetrab­le. Our kids will help her. They’ll help get her back on track.

I got a lesson in dying from a dear friend of mine last year, the legendary actor René Auberjonoi­s. He got a diagnosis of stage-four lung cancer and he was given a year to live, more or less. He called us to give us the news. I got very emotional on the phone.

“We’re not dead until we’re dead, René. Don’t forget that,” I said to him — and to myself — of course. “We don’t die in increments. We’re alive until we’re not. So your responsibi­lity to your wife and your children and their children — and to yourself — is to live. And then, after you die, you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

He, of course, knew all this. René and his wife Judith took a trip to Ireland with their kids and grandkids. His sister and her family live there — on a beautiful Irish farm — and they all leapt into that adventure together. Then René and Judith went to Buenos Aires, where they had never been, and learned the tango. One of his prodigious talents was photograph­y and he sent me a photo that he handpainte­d of tango dancers in Buenos Aires. And on the back of it he quoted the Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen:

“Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in

Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove

Dance me to the end of love.”

In addition to his great acting skills, René was a formidable artist, a sculptor, a painter, a photograph­er. Every breath he took was creative. He couldn’t help it.

And because he lived in California, where unlike in Connecticu­t, medical aid in dying is an option for terminally ill adults to die peacefully, he created for himself and his family a beautiful death. In his last weeks he combed through nearly 60 years of photograph­s and put together a slide show for the family. They gathered at his bedside and watched the history of their life together, with the Beatles’ music blasting merrily away. It took hours to see it all. They laughed, they danced, they hugged, they cried. It was like life. And then, with everyone gathered, he took his aidin-dying medication and peacefully died a very loving death. One of the last things he said was a thank you to the state of California for allowing him to die with the option of how it would proceed. He died as he lived: as an artist.

I have no idea how or when I’m going to die. It could happen suddenly and unexpected­ly, in which case my end-of-life care options won’t be an issue. But I know that if my state, Connecticu­t, has passed a recently introduced bill (H.B. 6425) that guarantees the end-of-life care option of medical aid in dying, then my life will be better now. And now is really what it’s all about.

 ?? Doug Mills/Pool / TNS ?? President Joe Biden signs several executive orders directing immigratio­n actions for his administra­tion as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Feb. 2.
Doug Mills/Pool / TNS President Joe Biden signs several executive orders directing immigratio­n actions for his administra­tion as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Feb. 2.
 ?? Andrew Harnik / Associated Press ?? Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th Presidenti­al Inaugurati­on at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, as their children Ashley and Hunter watch.
Andrew Harnik / Associated Press Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible during the 59th Presidenti­al Inaugurati­on at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, as their children Ashley and Hunter watch.
 ?? Contribute­d photo/ Dana Zohar ?? Candlewood Lake on a snowy day.
Contribute­d photo/ Dana Zohar Candlewood Lake on a snowy day.
 ?? Kristine Walsh ?? Actors Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker live in Easton.
Kristine Walsh Actors Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker live in Easton.
 ??  ?? Actor Rene Auberjonoi­s
Actor Rene Auberjonoi­s

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