US election 2020: America delivered a new chance to exit trauma of Donald Trump with Joe Biden
It was a speech of restoration, renewal and hope. President-elect Joe Biden seeks to rekindle the American dream, end the demonisation and heal the divisions.
This is the message America needs. Biden radiated strength and a sense of presidential mission. The long four-year nightmare of Donald Trump’s narcissistic discord is terminated. America has a new chance.
Biden dedicates himself to govern for “the whole people” and “to rebuild the backbone of the nation — the middle class”. This will become his presidential template. In claiming victory Biden extended the olive branch to the 70 million Americans who voted for Trump.
“We are not enemies,” Biden said. “We are Americans. The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America.”
Biden has claimed a “convincing” victory. The final numbers will verify a comfortable win. This result does not hinge upon just one state. Trump can pursue his legal challenges but he is doomed. Biden has moved decisively to pre-empt Trump’s inevitable tactic of de-legitimisation and a “stolen” election.
Every president changes the temper of America. Biden’s message, along with his future vice-president, Kamala Harris, the first black woman to be elected to high office, is to represent and honour all shades of American opinion and people.
Biden locates the current trauma in the long historical American battle “between our better angels and our darkest impulses” declaring that with the entire world watching “it is time for our better angels to prevail.” He claims a mandate for “the forces of decency and the forces of fairness” and tells all Americans that “we are a good people”.
Such aspiration and encompassing unity was beyond Trump’s character. Incapable of uniting America, Trump chose the path of division. Leading America from this darkness invests Biden with a special political opportunity if he has the skill to capture the historical moment.
As a political realist Biden has no illusions about the depth of American divisions. It will take many years and more than one election to address the American malaise. Yet the potential goodwill towards Biden should not be underestimated. The sense of relief is palpable. Biden will be flooded with goodwill from all America’s democratic friends.
The trap is that expectations will run too high. Biden will lead a divided nation and a divided Democratic Party where centrists and progressives exist in uneasy tension awaiting the shaping of an administration where Biden will struggle to strike the right compromises. Beyond this, Biden is unlikely to have the Senate and will face a heavily conservative Supreme Court. He will struggle in the teeth of institutional resistance.
Biden signalled his ambitious agenda — fighting the coronavirus, rebuilding prosperity, family healthcare, racial justice, climate change, the restoration of decency and what he called “a fair shot” for all. But such ambition sits uneasily with a divided government.
Biden repudiates Trump’s rebellion but not Trump’s supporters. But Trump, at some point, must concede, if not by word, then by action.
Every sign is that he intends to promote the notion of a “stolen” election and move forward on the basis of this great fabrication.
It will be the destructive dishonesty of the bad loser. When will his Australian conservative backers have the common sense and moral fortitude to dump him?
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