Home » Posts » #BTColumn – America: Post Trump

#BTColumn – America: Post Trump

by Barbados Today Traffic
6 min read
A+A-
Reset

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Ralph Jemmott

Time is truly a continuum. Two weeks into the New Year and the issues that confronted the world in 2020 are not only still with us, but have gotten worse.

In spite of the availability of at least three seemingly efficacious vaccines, the number of deaths worldwide continues to rise as we experience difficulties with a roll-out that presents ongoing logistical problems.

The scene at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on January 6, challenges a lot of the once cherished notions of the integrity
of America democracy in particular and of democratic governance generally.

An article in the Economist magazine of November 28 to 4th December 2020 notes optimistically, that while democracy has been in retreat, it contains the seeds of its own recovery.

When the Biden-Harris team takes the reins of government on January 20th, there is hope for change in the United States situation and that the Trump years will prove a mere blimp in the forward progressive march of America’s democratic engagement.

The inauguration will bring to the office of the President a man incomparably different from the person he succeeds. The pampered self-centred son of a millionaire will be replaced by the scion of a second-hand- car salesman, an avuncular elder statesman or the ‘Average Joe’ as ‘The Economist’ calls him, widely regarded as a ‘good man.’

The question of character is important because the problems of the past four years were almost entirely attributable to a composite malignancy in the persona of Donald J.Trump. For four years Trump governed with the crassness of a mob boss, as if governance was a cheap reality show, and as Fareed Zakaria has put it, as if public relations was the essence of the American Presidency.

The problem is that Trump’s character is a reflection of a deeper malignancy in America itself.

Assuming that the transfer of power on January 20 goes smoothly, the incoming Biden-Harris administration will have a mountain to climb.

The first difficulty is confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic which has now taken 200 million lives worldwide, including some 87 thousand in the U.K. and 400 thousand in America itself.

Trump never developed a national strategy to distribute the vaccine when it became available.

In fact, after the November elections, he became increasingly concerned with the false notion that he was cheated and became almost totally unconcerned with the progress of the virus and the havoc it was creating.

According to some commentators, COVID-19 has revealed America’s consistent failure to invest in its public health infrastructure. For too long in America, so-called Big Government was regarded as an enemy, a harbinger of ‘Socialism.’

Biden himself has made the promise that he will roll out one hundred million shots of the vaccine within the first 100 days of his taking office.

  This is admittedly a very ambitious project. He has already appointed Dr. David Kessler to head a rollout campaign for both manufacturing and distribution and in Biden’s own words “to move heaven and earth” to mobilise thousands of clinical and non-clinical supports including FEMA and the National Guard..    

The second endeavour is restoring order in politics and unity to the country, in Abraham Lincoln’s word to “bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Good luck with that. America is more divided than it ever was, not only in relation to the ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans but between rich and poor, white and non-white, urban and rural populations.

The on-going impeachment of Trump while legally and morally imperative could harden the partisan divide.

In this regard, much will depend on the degree to which Donald Trump continues to have a hold of the Republican Party.

Will the GOP repudiate him and will he fade away?

The tenacity with which Republicans within and without the Congress hold on to the lie of a Democratic steal of the 2020 elections will determine the ease with which a President Biden can move forward with his ameliorative agenda.

It is a frightening thought, but Trump may have deeply if not permanently eroded confidence in the United States’ voting system and in American democracy itself.   

Another challenge for Biden is the restoration of the American economy which is very much tied to the control of the pandemic.

One major task will be to support those who are falling through the proverbial cracks. These include those who cannot pay their mortgages or rents and run the risk of homelessness and a middle class hollowed out by 2007-2008 financial crisis and the economic effects of the present pandemic.

The fourth task facing Joseph R. Biden Jr. is the burden of restoring America’s place on the World.

A World that once looked to the United States for leadership now views it with horror and dismay. In the last two weeks of the Trump administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did something that has placed the incoming Biden government in a foreign policy bind.

With no evidence, he declared that Al Qaeda’s home base is now in Iran, that the Houthis and Cuba are state sponsors of terrorism and he lifted restrictions on contact with Taiwan which could complicate U.S.- Chinese negotiations.

All these Biden will have to tackle. David Miliband has described Pompeo’s last-minute actions as nothing less than
“diplomatic vandalism.”

Biden will no doubt seek to restore the Trans-Atlantic Alliance that has served Europe well since 1945. He will restore ties with the WHO and return to the Paris Climate Change Accord.

He will attempt to shore up global democracy against the inroads of autocracy.   Polly Toynbee of the Guardian thinks that much of the World’s leadership will welcome the new Democratic President who can once again be ‘a beacon to the World.’           

Ralph Jemmott is a respected retired educator.

You may also like

About Us

Barbados Today logos white-14

The (Barbados) Today Inc. is a privately owned, dynamic and innovative Media Production Company.

Useful Links

Get Our News

Newsletter

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

Barbados Today logos white-14

The (Barbados) Today Inc. is a privately owned, dynamic and innovative Media Production Company.

BT Lifestyle

Newsletter

Subscribe my Newsletter for new blog posts, tips & new photos. Let's stay updated!

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Accept Privacy Policy

-
00:00
00:00
Update Required Flash plugin
-
00:00
00:00