I am optimistic—but not sanguine—that when the dust clears in January and Trump’s attempts to invalidate the election and try to stay in power fail, (I so look forward to him being dragged out of the White House in cuffs by the Secret Service),that Joe Biden will be president.
Once Biden is president, he has one very big thing working in his favor; he can’t possibly do worse than his predecessor.
If we’re lucky and smart, he will also have one other advantage, party control over both the House and the Senate. Even if they remain supine to the executive, they will be supine to a much better executive.
But I pray to God (atheist in a foxhole here) that Biden will be surrounded by the best people because what he and his administration face on day one is going to be hell.
Here is some of what is against him:
- The country will be even more solidly in the grip of a pandemic. Look at how many new cases are developing daily now. By January it will be far, far worse because Trump and his minions are actively trying to make it worse.
- The government is broke, far more broke than at anytime in our history. The Trump administration debt was at the high-water mark before the pandemic for no apparent reason. With all the free money being distributed and promised and demanded now, it is hard to believe we won’t double our debt by January.
- The Trump administration has systematically fired all the competent, diligent, honest, and knowledgeable people it could. The ranks of the State Department have been decimated. Much has been done to remove any semblance of science in the NOAA, the EPA and even the FDA and I am sure, much more.
- Worse yet, Trump flunkies and Q-Anon believers are being put into key roles in the military, the Voice of America, the State Department, the Department of Education, and the EPA. When elected, how fast can a Biden administration find and root out these Trumpian sleepers without bringing the government to a halt?
- How long will it take to re-fill the jobs of Inspectors General that have been removed to hide Trumpian corruption?
- Who knows what will happen at the Department of Justice? It has been under attack from Trump and Barr, but it sounds like at least some modicum of honesty and self-respect still clings on there.
- Trump has done tremendous damage to the reputation of the United States in his time. He has insulted and betrayed our allies while sucking up to people like Putin and Kim Jung Un, Erdogan and Xi who know how to manipulate him. He has pulled the US out of leadership positions in fighting climate change, in fighting for world health, in fighting against tyranny. Russia, North Korea, Turkey and China are not our allies now but pretend to be because Trump will do what they want. They will drop all pretense once Biden becomes president. It will be years, if ever, before any of our natural allies, Canada, the EU, Britain, Germany, Mexico, Japan, just to name a few, will ever trust us again. The remaining Kurds will stand testament to why no one should trust the US as an ally.
- The current revolt against police brutality and institutionalized racism is long overdue, but it is not likely to be patient enough to give the the new administration time to find its feet. Things beyond anyone’s control could blow up in the new administration’s face and make their lives all the more difficult than they could be.
- Trump and his grifters and his white-power senior citizens and his lost-cause lamenters and the idiot Q-Anon believers are not going away. Since they have no sense of shame or reality, who knows how far they will go to continue to undermine the US Government. Fox News isn’t going to suddenly turn into responsible journalism and frankly, as much as I despise Trumpian claims of fake news, the so-called Mainstream Media, which seems to include everyone but Fox, Breitbart and OANN and their fellow travellers, will not cease their attacks from the left even if they are far more responsible and honest than Fox. I fear any Biden honeymoon will be short and bittersweet.
- Oh, and let’s not forget the Arctic is burning, polar and Greenland ice is melting at record levels, the permafrost is melting in Siberia, probably releasing the far more dangerous greenhouse gas, methane. Hurricanes and typhoons are worsening yearly (except so far this year because of the record Saharan dust storm!). The insect apocalypse continues, etc…
I wish Biden well, he has suffered and survived enough pain in his life that I don’t think he will collapse under the weight of what he will face. But he will need all the support, strength, good advice, and goodwill from everyone around him to face the coming hurricane.