Highly experienced Democrat Joe Biden, the winner of last November’s US presidential elections amidst uncertainties, has ultimately taken charge as the 46th President of the United States of America with Indian-African origin leader Kamala Harris as Vice-President. It is not only an overwhelming majority of Americans but also the democracy-loving people elsewhere in the world who are heaving a sigh of relief as the rule of a maverick US President, Donald Trump, has become history.
It can be said without exaggeration that Trump had become a security threat to the entire humankind with the US nuclear button being under his control. He had always been unpredictable, but in his final days as US President, he was feared that he might take any foolish step that would have proved too costly for the US and the rest of the world. One of the possibilities being talked about was ordering an attack on Iran to punish the Persian Gulf nation for its nuclear ambitions though Teheran had reached in 2015 a nuclear deal with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US (later the Trump administration withdrew from the deal), the UK, France, China and Russia – along with Germany and the European Union.
Trump, who accepted his electoral defeat only at the last minute after making unfounded charges, including stealing of elections, against the Biden-led Democratic Party team, allegedly instigated an unprecedented attack by white supremacists on the US Capitol, where the American congress (parliament) building is located. But, luckily, these mad caps could not do much beyond spreading scare. That he caused much harm to the US image as the oldest and most robust democracy of the world was not his concern.
Trump’s actions and policies divided the US on racial lines to the extent never experienced before with the sole purpose of getting a second term as President which he could not. America did have the racial issue in the past too, but it could never polarise the US society as sharply as it did during the Trump years. His divisive policies helped him in getting over 48 per votes polled during the Presidential elections, but in the process damaging social piece considerably.
President Biden has inherited an America which is not at peace with itself. He will have to work hard to repair the damage caused to the US social fabric so that America during his administration can fully play its global role as the sole surviving super power in accordance with the world’s expectations.
It is this factor which appears to have been the guiding spirit behind President Biden’s address at his administration’s inaugural function on January 20. He tried to impress upon the American public that the
US could continue to maintain its status as the global leader and the greatest democracy on earth only if it followed inclusive policies, abandoning the white supremacist approach of the previous Trump administration.
The complexion of the Biden administration clearly reflects the new President’s thinking that America can become great again (an expression popularised by Trump) only if all sections of society – whites, blacks, immigrants, different religious communities, et al – are allowed to work together as a cohesive force.
Besides Kamala Harris as the first woman and black Vice-President of South Asian descent, the Biden team has a number of others whose parents or forefathers came to the US from Latin America, Asia or Africa in search of opportunities and made America their home.
They include Lloyd Austin, the first African-American Secretary of Defence, a retired four-star General with more than 40 years of service in the US military; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, the first immigrant and Latino head of the Department of Homeland Security; Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the first Latino to lead the department; Dr Vivek Murthy, Surgeon-General, the most high-profile Indian-American in Biden’s team after Kamala Harris; Neera Tanden, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the first woman of South Asian descent to head this office; and Rohit Chopra of Indian descent, Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
However, they have not been given any favour to demonstrate the US social diversity. These non-whites have acquired significant positions in the Biden team because of their capabilities and rich experience. That they happen to be non-whites is not a disqualification. Instead, their presence serves to convey the message that people of different races and descent have contributed immensely to the US becoming what
it is today – the leader of the world.
Biden’s inaugural speech shows how he is going to meet the social challenge the new President faces owing to the divisive politics that his immediate predecessor pursued. Biden declared on January 20, “To all those who supported our campaign I am humbled by the faith you have placed in us. To all those who did not support us, let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. And if you still disagree, so be it.
“That’s democracy. That’s America. The right to dissent peaceably, within the guardrails of our Republic, is perhaps our nation’s greatest strength. Yet hear me clearly: Disagreement must not lead to disunion.”
He assured the US public, including those who did not vote for him, that he stood for inclusiveness, and racial and other divisive factors have no meaning for him.
In his own words, “I understand that many Americans view the future with some fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs, about taking care of their families, about what comes next. I get it.
“But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.
“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility.”
As announced earlier, Biden signed over a dozen executive orders soon after he entered the Oval Office in the White House. These included measures to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change, to repeal Trump’s restrictions on travel to the US from many Muslim-majority countries, stop the construction of the southern border wall to seal the US from Mexico and proposing a sweeping immigration reform bill. He has plans to take more such steps to free the US from the Trumpian cobweb.
India, with its religious, cultural, linguistic, ethnic and other diversities, can learn a lot from the American experience. The super power had been losing on almost every front during the Trump administration years mainly because of his policies of exclusion, highlighting the supremacy of the white race. The US had virtually become a laughing stock on the world stage owing to not only its failure to properly handle its adversaries like China but also because of being at war with itself. The US allies in the West and elsewhere had almost lost confidence in the American capability to help protect their interests.
The new President will have to find ways to infuse a new lease of life into his country’s relations with its allies and others besides mending fences at home.
President Biden is confident that he will succeed on most fronts with cooperation from all segments of society. All he will have to do is to provide equal opportunities to every segment of society, as it happened before the Trump administration, to play their role confidently and fearlessly to ensure that America acquires again the pre-eminent position it once enjoyed in global affairs.
[The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist and political columnist.]