And with that, Donald Trump suddenly seemed like yesterday’s news.
The appearance of Joe Biden as president-elect flanked by his vice-president Kamala Harris has immediately swept away the Trump years.
Not that Trump disappears or that his followers no longer matter — they do as much as ever — but the spell has been broken.
Donald Trump alone with his petulance and lies now looks small, like the Wizard of Oz — just a little man behind a big microphone.
Biden, dismissed by many — the man who had failed in two previous presidential campaigns — now looked and sounded presidential.
In Kamala Harris — the first female vice-president, African-American and the daughter of an Indian immigrant — Biden announces the next generation of the Democratic Party.
US election 2020
Follow the twists and turns as Donald Trump and Joe Biden face off in the race for the White House.
Read more
Americans have endured decades of unending crisis from terrorism to war abroad and economic collapse.
Poor Americans feel left behind and feel that politics is rigged against them.
Biden likes to talk up his “working class” roots — lunch pail Joey from Scranton Pennsylvania — but he is in fact part of the despised American meritocracy: a Washington lifer is seen as part of the problem.
He pledges now to govern for all Americans, but we always hear that. Guess who was the last American president to talk about unity? Yes, Donald Trump.
In his inaugural address, Trump praised Barack Obama’s handover of power. For too long, Trump said, Washington flourished “but the jobs left and the factories closed”.
Trump then, like Biden now, promised to return power to the people. “We are one nation,” Trump said. “We share one heart, one home, one glorious destiny.”
So much for that.
Identity rules
Barack Obama refused to believe in red states and blue states, just the United States. He left behind a nation poor, sick and divided and ready for an opportunist and populist like Donald Trump.
Biden made much in his speech of identity: African-American, White, Latino, Asian, Native American, straight, transgender. An inclusive America sounds good, but identity has also been part of America’s problem.
American tribalism has torn at the fabric of the country: there is a shared “we” and more of an “us and them”.
Trump played identity politics harder and more successfully than anyone, whipping up his white, poor base to take him to the White House.
Writing in 2016, political scientist Mark Lilla called the politics of identity a “disastrous foundation for democratic politics”.
Biden will need to elevate civic identity over the things that divide.
America’s problems are not just domestic; its position in the world has been badly damaged.
It is no longer a trusted ally, but France’s Emmanuel Macron has talked of “strategic autonomy” to ween his nation off reliance on American power.
‘Post-American world’
The phrase “post-American world” has come increasingly into vogue as other powers have risen.
Biden wants to “make America respected around the world again”.
“It’s always been a bad bet to bet against America,” he said.
Well, the world has been betting against America.
During the Obama presidency — when Biden was vice-president — Russia bet against America by annexing Crimea, Islamic State bet against America, China bet against America and claimed and militarised the South China Sea; North Korea bet against America by building up its nuclear arsenal.
And America alone could not stop them.
Joe Biden is president-elect. It is right to bask for a moment in hope.
But he will be sworn in as president, on January 20 next year, of a divided and hurt nation and a world as volatile as any stage since the 1930s.
Hope will not be enough.
Credit: Source link
