Patrick Carlyon: Biden’s woke tendencies won’t serve middle America

When he was elected Joe Biden vowed that he would preside for all Americans. But some of his opening moves suggest he’s not.

President Joe Biden inherited a mess.

Eager to undo what his predecessor left behind, Biden has evoked the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt, who came to office in 1933 when a quarter of the country was out of work.

Besides the loss of 10 million jobs, and the death of 400,000 Americans, Biden must sweeten the bitter chorus of millions of Americans who voted for Trump.

He must mend the racial cracks in his society. His best credential for presidential office was not who he was, but who he was not, and his highest priority is to curb the pandemic that Donald Trump ignored.

The job ahead is massive, especially in his first 100 days, when presidents seek to stamp their imprimatur on the job and country.

Yet the optics of Biden’s first days have been clouded. His can-do patter of unity has been smudged by sideshows of his choosing. Some of Biden’s priorities speak of pet projects rather than nation-building exercises.

Biden seems determined to prove his Left credentials. He has undone some of the airier strokes of Trump’s pen. Fair enough — all presidents use executive orders to undo some of the executive orders of previous presidents.

US President Joe Biden speaks on racial equity before signing executive orders.

But Biden has plonked minor issues on centre stage. He has alienated conservatives with a rhetoric and policy which would be derided as “political correctness” in Australia. And he is doing so serving in an unprecedented crisis, both of nature and thinking, which led to Congress being stormed by protesters.

In one of his first flurry of acts, Biden ordered an investigation into coronavirus. The inquiry will determine, in part, whether the use of the term “China virus” is racist.

As former secretary of state Mike Pompeo suggested, here was a serious case of “woke” semantics.

Biden also signed an executive order that transgender girls be allowed to play in girls’ sports in federally funded schools.

It’s a complicated issue, given natural advantages of birth might be considered unfair in a sporting context. The decision inspired fierce debate about discrimination and invited headlines such as “Erasing Women”.

Biden also reinstated a dropped military transgender policy by revoking a Trump edict. It’s not that Biden’s policy was wrong, but that the timing was wrong.

As Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, a Marine veteran, was quoted: “In one of his first acts as commander-in-chief, President Biden is redirecting the military’s focus from where it has been and where it belongs — fighting and winning wars. Political correctness doesn’t win wars …”

Biden also declared war on climate change. With cheesy relish, he declared “Climate Day”, a worthy cause, certainly, but not high on the list of America’s immediate woes, and a red flag to all Americans fearful of job losses.

His much-needed focus on the pandemic is potted with challenges, such as winning congressional support for the hastening of vaccine rollouts.

Some experts predict that 700,000 Americans will die of the virus, and Biden is rightly ambitious in seeking to rally the masses: he wants 100 million people to be vaccinated by the end of April.

Biden has signed a number of executive orders.

But again, his language for change was exposed to ridicule. In seeking support for the wearing of face masks, which became a political issue during the election campaign, he invoked a “100- day mask challenge”.

He was urging a health measure that could save countless lives. Yet he sounded like the chief cheerleader for a school read-a-thon.

Biden has stopped the border wall and rescinded the so-called Muslim ban. He wants a “data driven” response to the pandemic, just one of his many big causes to address in the uncertain months ahead.

Yet the fact that much of the country distrusts him and his agenda should have precluded some of his opening edicts. They doubled as distracting and divisive.

He has exposed himself to the pot shots of conservative voices, many of whom are masters of the dog whistle. He stands accused of dabbling in political dessert before putting bread on the table.

Shouldn’t Biden be more centrist, at least until the future of the nation is bedded down? Doesn’t the crisis of health and economy demand nothing less?

Within 100 days, Roosevelt had revamped financial systems, introduced unemployment relief and laid a blueprint for economic reform.

A Democrat, he did not indulge marginal issues as legacies. He didn’t need to. His legacy was to rebuild an economy with the discarded parts of a broken engine and kickstart a stalled country.

He got things done by applying the so-called three Rs — relief, recovery and reform.

Will Biden? His rise, as the New Yorker calls it, was a contest of “error and effort”.

Will he preside for all Americans, as all great presidents do, and as he vowed on taking office?

Some of his opening moves suggest not.

Patrick Carlyon is a Herald Sun columnist

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