Joe Biden era launched with patriotic appeal for unity

After a polarising campaign, US president-elect Joe Biden struck the right tone in his victory speech on Sunday Australian time when he appealed for an end to “this grim era of demonisation”. It is time to put away the harsh rhetoric, he said, and lower the temperature. Reaching out to 70 million Americans who voted for President Trump, Mr Biden said he understood the disappointment. “I’ve lost a couple of elections myself. But now, let’s give each other a chance … This is the time to heal in America.” Most election winners promise the same. But it is vital for the US and the world that Mr Biden, after he is sworn in as the 46th US president at the age of 78, makes good his rhetoric. Mr Trump, angry and bitterly disappointed at being rejected by voters for the second term he desperately wanted, must also play his part in calming his supporters.

Amid the fissures that have opened up in American society, and the ravages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Biden, for all his displays of optimism, has reason to feel daunted. On Friday, 127,000 new COVID-19 infections were diagnosed across the US — the third consecutive day of record numbers, outstripping those recorded in the first wave earlier in the year. Mr Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, the first woman and the first person of colour to occupy the office of vice president, will be sworn in on January 21. But Mr Biden was wise to move quickly to announce the appointment of a group of scientific experts to work on a plan to defeat the virus. Success or failure against the pandemic will do much to define his presidency. The US, like most of Europe, is heading into the northern hemisphere winter in bad shape.

Mr Trump paid a high price for his refusal to heed scientific advice on the virus. But Mr Biden should not give in to demands for a wholesale lockdown that would cripple the economy. Much depends on getting the balance right. The US economy has been bouncing back, growing by a record 33 per cent last quarter. A jobs report last week showed unemployment had fallen to 6.9 per cent, with 638,000 jobs added in October. But if the virus cannot be reined in its effects could trigger a double-dip recession or even a depression with grave repercussions. Individual enterprise needs to remain the American way. Mr Biden would best serve the interests of the US by resisting any push from the left of his own party for a major ideological lurch on issues such as legislating for “equal outcomes” (one of Senator Harris’s interests) or defunding police. The Republican Senate majority should help Mr Biden resist such impulses.

Daunting foreign policy challenges also await. Mr Biden needs to project firm and clear objectives to discourage opportunism by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. In congratulating Mr Biden, Scott Morrison reminded him of the strategic importance of the US-Australia alliance as the bedrock of Washington’s and our own role in the Indo-Pacific region. Mr Morrison will be inviting Mr Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, to the 70th anniversary celebrations of the ANZUS Treaty next year. As Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years, Mr Biden knows the importance of the US pivot to this region at a tense time, mainly caused by China’s unrelenting belligerence. Mr Trump built on the pivot and Mr Biden must further it. A resolute assertion of US commitment to the region is needed from the new administration, including an acknowledgment of the importance of freedom of navigation through the South China Sea.

Mr Biden needs to be similarly decisive in building on Mr Trump’s progress in the Middle East, where US-brokered treaties between Israel and moderate Arab states have improved prospects of peace. Whatever his involvement in the Obama administration’s shortsighted nuclear deal with Iran, Mr Biden would be unwise to recommit to it in the same terms, despite its support among European leaders. While many EU leaders would have breathed a sigh of relief following Mr Trump’s defeat, Mr Biden needs to hold them to their new commitments, bludgeoned out of them by Mr Trump, to bear a larger share of NATO’s defence of Europe. Their contributions are needed to deter incipient Russian aggression.

Mr Biden has made clear his determination to reverse Mr Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement on climate change, and the World Health Organisation. Australia, as Mr Morrison pointed out on Sunday, has remained committed to both, despite being a close US ally. It will be to the world’s advantage if Washington plays a constructive role in such forums, especially, in ensuring the WHO does better in dealing with the COVID.

For all Mr Trump’s considerable achievements, grace was not one of his characteristics in the Oval Office or on social media, especially. But he needs to show it now. He is entitled to launch whatever legal action he deems fit to challenge what he regards as examples of fraud to challenge Mr Biden’s victory. But with even his close political allies insisting that nothing verifiable or of major significance has emerged, Mr Trump should be careful about where his disappointment is leading him. Americans do not like sore losers; for his own sake and that of the US and his supporters he should consider why it is important not to undermine his legacy, which in many ways will continue to shape the direction of the US for a long time. After the uncertainty of Mr Trump’s presidency, Mr Biden’s victory has been welcomed in the US and around the world as an opportunity for a return to “normalcy”. For all the upheavals surrounding the result, the process is also testimony to the strength of US democracy. Despite losing, Mr Trump gained seven million more votes than when he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Mr Biden got more than 75 million, a record in any presidential election. Such record engagement is a healthy sign of the US’s 244-year old democracy. Given the sharp electoral divide, if Mr Biden is to make good his promises to “restore the soul’’ of the US and unite blue and red states, he will govern from the sensible centre.