America: a new chapter

It was a new dawn for America as the tumultuous presidency of Donald Trump finally came to an end. Millions of Americans were joined by world leaders and ordinary citizens of the world in breathing a collective sigh of relief as one of the worst leaders in American history retired to his private club in Florida. It wasn’t easy. Washington looked more like Baghdad or Kabul after the American invasions, with some 25,000 troops deployed for security duties in light of the deadly attack on the US Capitol a fortnight earlier by Trump’s terrorist supporters.

In the last year alone, Trump blew up the economy and managed to let more than 400,000 Americans die on his watch — more than all US combat deaths in World War Two. Yet 74 million mostly uninformed Americans still thought he deserved a second term. It was a testament to Trump’s incompetence that there were no cheering crowds for Joe Biden’s inauguration as the President of the United States of America. Between the threats from fascistic Trump supporters and the raging Covid-19 pandemic, it just wasn’t safe to let law-abiding American citizens absorb the historic moment in person.

Look at how bad was the man named Trump. He did not even have enough class, grace, manners, or respect for the top elected office to attend Biden’s inauguration or welcome his successor to the White House. Instead, he hitched an early morning plane ride out of town. Still, what we saw was a moment of pride for Americans, and especially people of colour, as Kamala Harris took the oath of office to become the first woman, first black, first Indian-origin, and first Jamaican-origin vice president. Apart from former president Barack Obama, who was black, no one from any of those categories has ever held higher office in the United States.

Biden, meanwhile, offered a sincere unifying tone not heard since Obama was president. “Today, we celebrate triumph not of a candidate but of a cause, the cause of democracy,” he declared in an expression of selflessness, unity and pluralism, with his statement falling in stark contrast with Trump’s self-centred approach. “I know forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we’re all created equal and harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.”

Biden then expressed his commitment to working towards uniting America “to fight the foes we face — anger, resentment and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness.” Trump, on the other hand, recently put out an official government document justifying slavery and nativism.

Biden also spoke to the rest of the world. “My message to those beyond our borders — America has been tested, and we’ve come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again,” he said.

Biden followed up on his words with actions, signing at least 17 executive orders within hours of taking office. Among these were orders revoking Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ and rejoining the Paris climate agreement. He also unveiled an immigration bill to provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the US without legal status.

But we know it only takes a moment to break what takes years to build. How much of what Trump broke will Biden be able to repair, only time will tell.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2021.

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