Biden’s pitch for unity to end America’s ‘uncivil war

Just 14 days after the US Capitol was ransacked by a rampaging mob, Americans have good reason to feel proud of the peaceful transfer of power in Washington that saw Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sworn in on the steps of the building. The dignity and gravitas of the inauguration showed the doomsayers how wrong they were when they misinterpreted the January 6 assault on the citadel of US democracy as a portent about the future of the nation’s institutions and its leadership of the free world. The ceremony underlined President Biden’s main message in his inaugural address, when he called on Americans to “end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal”. They must do so. And Donald Trump, however embittered about his defeat, should follow the example of previous presidents who, on leaving office, allowed their successors the clear air they needed after being sworn in. From his home in Florida, Mr Trump will further tarnish his legacy if he fails to behave in the national interest and tries to undermine the new administration. His “very generous” letter to Mr Biden, as the new President termed it, was a good sign.

With Ms Harris — the first woman to hold the vice-presidency — at his side, Mr Biden’s inaugural address, as Cameron Stewart reported, was “the speech most of America wanted to hear and the rest of America needed to hear”. It was, “pitch perfect” as “an antidote to the divisive rhetoric of the Trump era”. Its embracing tone was in stark contrast to the petulant style of Mr Trump’s departure from Joint Base Andrews on Air Force One, to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. It was all about him, to the end.

The second Catholic in history to hold the office of president after John F Kennedy, Mr Biden’s language was that of president and priest, as Paul Kelly writes. “He invoked Washington, Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Saint Augustine in defining the common elements of love shared by all Americans — opportunity, liberty, security, respect and truth.’’ His quoting Augustine prompted The Wall Street Journal to note that the new President is “refreshingly unwoke”. We hope he remains so.

Mr Biden made it clear it was his priority to heal the US: “My whole soul is in this, bringing America together.’’ He spoke of the turbulence besetting the country as it struggles with the toll of the pandemic; the battered economy in need of revival and the deepest racial divisions since the civil rights era. His overriding call for unity was aimed at both sides of the US’s fractious political landscape. Americans would do well to respond to his appeal to “stand in the other people’s shoes” and “lower the temperature” of their political discourse.

It is what is needed after the rancour stirred by Mr Trump’s false claims about election fraud, which have led a third of Americans to believe Mr Biden’s election win was illegitimate. But Mr Biden must make good on his pledge that he will govern for all Americans, including the 74 million who voted for Mr Trump, and that he will work for them no less than for the record 82 million who voted for him. Mr Trump left the White House under a dark cloud because of his graceless conduct and his unwillingness to accept defeat. But polls show the outgoing president retains the support of 90 per cent of Republican voters. Mr Biden cannot ignore that reality.

At 78 he is the oldest US president ever starting his first term. But after decades as a senator and vice-president, he brings vast legislative experience to the White House that few of his predecessors had. He must use his reputation as a leader willing to work across party lines to help heal the nation’s wounds and achieve the support needed for dealing with his major challenges, the COVID -19 pandemic and the economy.

He has got off to a rapid start. The first of a series of executive orders he signed after entering the White House fulfilled his promise to mandate mask-wearing in all government offices, something Mr Trump refused to do despite the pleas of the US medical fraternity. He has also honoured his promises to reverse Mr Trump’s decision to pull out of the World Health Organisation, flawed as it is, and announced that the US is returning to the Paris climate change accord. Despite Mr Trump’s withdrawal, the accord has continued to be supported by most US allies, including Australia. True to his word, Mr Biden has also terminated support for Mr Trump’s border wall with Mexico and lifted his ban on immigrants from countries with majority Muslim populations. Economic recovery and containing COVID-19, assisted by vaccines, will be major litmus tests.

While Australia’s alliance with the US remained strong under Mr Trump, Mr Biden’s pledge to “repair” America’s alliances and “engage in the world again” as “a strong and trusted partner” is a welcome message for all allies, including Australia, after Mr Trump’s isolationist, “America First” approach to foreign policy. After Mr Trump’s frequently abrasive relationship with some US allies, the challenge facing Mr Biden as the new leader of the free world is to rally a fractured West to join in a multilateral approach to confronting an increasingly aggressive China and a more menacing Russia in defence of a rules-based international order. But Mr Biden recognises, crucially, that America is at its most powerful when it works with and through allies. While more sophisticated in his approach than Mr Trump, Mr Biden is clear about the threat posed by China. He branded China’s treatment of its Uighur minority as “genocide’’ long before the Trump administration did just before it left office. At Senate hearings to consider Mr Biden’s nomination of Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, it emerged that the new administration will maintain Mr Trump’s strong support for Israel and retain the US embassy’s controversial relocation to Jerusalem. That is a good decision.

Given the deep divisions in US society, Mr Biden must govern from the centre and resist the “progressive” domination sought by those on the woke left of the Democratic Party who were part of the coalition that helped win him office. To date, almost all his cabinet appointments, including Mr Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, are highly experienced pragmatists who recognise the policy limits needed to achieve the bipartisan support the administration needs. Mr Biden’s inaugural address showed he grasps the inflection point of history that he occupies. The test of his quest for unity will be in how he governs.