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Jan. 22, 2021

J BROOKS SPECTOR

8 min read

Biden, Harris take oath of office

Biden, Harris take oath of office

The new US President Joe Biden

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JUST two weeks ago, it seemed entirely possible that two centuries of US representative democracy might well come to a violent, untimely end, when a mob rampaged through the Capitol, eager to overturn the then ongoing certification of Joe Biden’s electoral vote count by the US Congress.

Egged on by the now-former president and his arm-waving, snarling crew of supporters, hundreds of people ransacked the Capitol before finally being driven out by police reinforcements, after hours of chaos and riot. 

Fast-forward to Wednesday January 20. The presidential inauguration was taking place in a city under the protection of tens of thousands of National Guard troops and police from across the nation, and simultaneously under social distancing restrictions in response to the still-untrammelled Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, rather than the many hundreds of thousands of spectators who would have packed the National Mall – stretching out from the West Front of the Capitol towards some of Washington’s great monuments and flanked by the vast repository of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums – only a very limited crowd was seated on the tiers of the West Front of the Capitol. Instead, the Mall was festooned with thousands of flags, symbolic of the vast tide of death from Covid-19 as well as the national community witnessing the swearing-in by television and online streaming.

Meanwhile, of course, defying a longstanding tradition, the soon-to-be former president had ducked out of the formal transfer of power (not even bothering to welcome the president-elect into the White House in the morning before that noon hour), and then he left for Florida from Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland.

There was a sad little farewell event that had odd music choices and a mawkish, short speech that recycled the old lies, and then the soon-to-be first couple, with the accompaniment of Frank Sinatra singing My Way, after having heard the anthem YMCA by the Village People, took a last trip on Air Force One.

Good-bye.

The country will not miss the incessant splenetic attacks and vitriol.

Back at the Capitol, the new president, Joe Biden, and vice-president, Kamala Harris, took their oaths of office, Lady Gaga delivered a soulful rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, Jennifer Lopez sang This Land is Your Land, Garth Brooks offered Amazing Grace (asking the world to sing with him at home), and the 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman delivered an extraordinarily apt poem, The Hill We Climb, that has already been drawing global praise. 


By the time the new president rose to deliver his inaugural address, the crowd at the Capitol, and audiences globally via television and online, were ready to understand the reality of what this transfer of power has meant — moving on from a raging basilisk to an Irish Catholic mensch, ready, ever eager to turn the national page and get to work. 

Sprinkling references from Abraham Lincoln and St Augustine, along with allusions to ideas in common with the thoughts of former president Barack Obama, the new president delivered a plainly phrased text that seemed apropos of the moment – a moment of great national stress and suffering from a pandemic, the economic collapse, and that deep fissure in the nation’s body politic.

As Biden said, “This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope of renewal and resolve through a crucible for the ages. America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. The people, the will of the people, has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded. We’ve learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.” 

He went on to say, “This is a great nation. We are good people. And over the centuries, through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we’ve come so far. But we still have far to go. We’ll press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities, much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build, and much to gain.

“Few people in our nation’s history have been more challenged or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now. A once-in-a-century virus that silently stalks the country. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War 2. Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.” 

The new president went on to insist, “Uniting to fight the foes we face: anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness. With unity, we can do great things, important things. We can right wrongs. We can put people to work in good jobs. We can teach our children in safe schools. We can overcome the deadly virus. We can reward, reward work and rebuild the middle class and make healthcare secure for all. We can deliver racial justice and we can make America once again the leading force for good in the world.

“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know the 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 the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonisation have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial and victory is never assured.” 

The president added, “Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine, a saint in my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. Defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we as Americans love, that define us as Americans? I think we know. Opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honour and yes, the truth.

“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies.

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Biden, Harris take oath of office

US Vice President Kamala Harris

“Look, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs. I understand, like my dad, they lay in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering, can I keep my healthcare? Can I pay my mortgage? Thinking about their families, about what comes next. I promise you, I get it.

“But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you 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, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.” 

This was certainly not lofty, ringing rhetoric – Biden is not an orator the likes of the man he served loyally as vice-president. And his address certainly did not try to paper over the obvious divides or to minimise the challenges faced by the president and the country. Nor was it an effort to excoriate the man who had preceded him, save through the example of the new president’s careful words and demeanour. But it may have been just enough to exorcise some of the demons that have been afflicting the nation for the past four years.

After the traditional visit in the rotunda of the Capitol for the congressional gifts to the president and vice-president (but without the usual lunch, in deference to the pandemic), it was off to nearby Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and then on to the White House to get to work. The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue has almost been dispensed with, out of respect for the pandemic, save for a few groups and the president’s ride and walk to the White House. A virtual event, hosting bands and marchers from across the country, live but virtually, has substituted for the traditional parade. 

Meanwhile, many of Biden’s White House staff have already started their move into their offices in the White House complex. The plan is to have the new president sign some 15 executive orders and other instruments on the first day in office. These will include some that will roll back specific executive orders from the previous administration, and to state the Biden administration’s intent to re-affiliate with the Paris Climate Accord.

At least for one day, partisan rancour has been left behind. Even the new Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, had kind words for the new president and vice-president, extolling their virtues of coming from the Senate, and also taking care to remind Speaker Nancy Pelosi that both of them skipped the House entirely, in a rare attempt to lighten the atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust between Democrats and Republicans.

It will be up to the new administration to find common ground with Republicans in the Congress, some of whom, having lost the rabble-rouser-in-chief, may actually be amenable to finding common ground with the new president on some issues and policies. On this, of course, the jury will be out for a while yet. 

The new Biden administration has bold, some would say audacious, plans in many areas, but it will need to find its own path in the days and weeks ahead towards acceptable compromises as well. DM

 

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