Preparing For Biden’s Presidency – OpEd

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With Joe Biden’s electoral victory almost certain, irrespective of Trump’s flurry of law suits and media offensive aimed at de-legitimizing the process and the next president of the United States, the stage is now set for a Democratic administration that has vowed to restore honesty and decency in the White House and thus heal the gaping wounds of Trump’s presidency.

While it remains to be seen how the transition from Trump to Biden will be worked out — will Trump leave the office voluntarily or be escorted out? — it is abundantly clear however that Trump’s disgraceful post-election performance, leveling wild and unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud and a stolen election, constitute his last hurrah, simply adding to a thickly record of disdain for the democratic process, abuse of power, and a totalitarian tendency ultimately checkmated by the strong, and viable, pillars of American democracy.

Concerning the latter, despite serious flaws, reflected in the populist, anti-democratic Trumpist movement ‘from the below,’ the 2020 presidential election is praiseworthy in light of the huge turnout, peaceful process, and the principled manner in which the winner, Joe Biden, conducted his campaign and avoided the multiple mistakes of his adversary, who is now at a loss why so many mail-in-votes have gone the Biden way given the fact that he relentlessly urged his supporters to vote in person.  No doubt, this was a fateful mistake on Trump’s error that may have cost him the presidency, along with numerous other maladies on his part, such as his aversion toward face masks, which are essential to beat the coronavirus according to Trump’s own health officials.

Of course, in tabulating the various causes of his defeat, central attention must be given to Trump’s serious mismanagement of the health crisis, ranked as number one priority in the minds of most Americans, who are suffering the dire consequences of the raging pandemic in the tragic forms of deaths and hospitalizations, mass unemployment, rising hunger and homelessness, and record number of evictions.      

As president, Biden faces supremely difficult challenges in tackling the health and economic problems besetting the United States today, as well as a bulk of the world economy, and he will likely use his extensive background as a lawmaker for a bi-partisan approach to solving these problems. 

A big question here is the role of Congress and whether or not the Democrats will win additional seats in the Senate in order to secure a legislative dominance, much needed to implement Biden’s script to revitalize the ailing American economy? But, even without a Democratic-controlled Senate, Biden is apt to strike a working relationship with the Republican senators, such as Mitch McConnell, who meaningfully frustrated Trump’s recent attempt to introduce a new stimulus package — that would have given Trump a much-needed electoral boost. 

After all, Biden has a strong mandate with some 74 million Americans voting him into office, which will enable Biden, particularly during his “honeymoon” that may last a few months. 

Biden has pledged to return US to the Paris Climate Accord, to lift Trump’s disgraceful ban on Muslim travel, address the urgent health-care needs, and heal the rifts with America’s allies, above all the Europeans who will have a huge sigh of relief at Trump’s departure and the return of foreign policy sanity on the part of United States, safely assuming that Trump’s false claims and legal challenges to the electoral results will not affect the outcome. 

The writing is on the wall, Trump’s era is thankfully over.

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, Ph.D. is an Iranian-American political scientist and author specializing in Iran’s foreign and nuclear affairs, and author of several books.

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