Biden Won - What Now?

Opinion policy analysis by Albert Geokgeuzian, Staff Writer

November 8th, 2020

4 days. After 4 days of waiting, the longest wait for a presidential election to be called since 2000 is finally over, and Joe Biden is president-elect of the United States of America. President-elect Joe Biden amassed almost 75 million votes, the most in US election history. So after 4 years of Trump, what now?

Well there are some few things that Biden will immediately do, reinstating the group of experts tasked with leading the US during the pandemic being one of them, the other being to re-enter the Paris Accord - which the US officially left this week, 3 years after President Trump declared their intention - on January 21, the first day he is elected, he will rejoin it.

Joe Biden will also reinforce the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, who is a vocal NATO supporter, which had been becoming weaker during President Trump’s term. Biden will also most probably reinstate the nuclear deal with Iran, even if it is with some changes. 

Biden and Kamala also have to decide how to deal with the previous administration, will they take the same path of letting bygones be bygones, as Obama and Biden did with Bush, or will they pursue legal action against Trump? 

In the next couple of days Trump supporters will be upset, they will be vocal, it may even turn violent. Trump will exhaust every resource to fight this defeat but ultimately will find himself in the wrong, and it’s going to be on Biden and Kamala to guide the US through it all.

Coming in after Trump means coming in after the most divisive, dishonest, most autocratic, least genuine president in recent history. President Bush wasn’t considered the smartest president but he was at least considered a decent man, Trump is not that. He prays on the baser needs, casts doubt on the institutions that offer transparency, deflects all responsibility during times of crisis while taking all the credit during times of celebration. That is not presidential. 

Biden has experienced a lot during his lifetime, he tragically lost the love of his life and his infant daughter in a car accident in 1972, a week before christmas, and lost his oldest son to cancer. He comes from a background of decency, resilience and perseverance. Qualities that will help him during his presidency. 

But no matter what, president-elect Joseph Biden has an extremely difficult job in the palms of his hands, he will have to unite a divided nation, fight a pandemic, save the country’s economy all while he does not have the majority in the Senate. 

There is still a lot to determine  but one thing is for certain, this wasn’t the sweeping victory the Democrats were hoping for, they won’t be getting the overwhelming majority in the senate they were hoping for, they probably won’t be getting a majority at all which will severely impact how Biden can operate. Many of Biden’s policies will be dead on arrival in Mitch McConnel’s Senate and as such the relationship between Biden and McConnel is the key factor into seeing how the next 2 years, until the 2022 midterms, of governance looks like. It will be a daunting task, but the President-elect is better equipped than most.

Biden is a creature of the Senate, he has been in the thick of it for the past 2 decades, and as such, he has a better chance of getting things done with a Republican majority in the Senate than Obama had because of his already established relationships within Congress. He has to use every single one of those relationships to produce results. 

Trump won’t be going away, even when he exhausts every avenue and admits defeat it won’t be the regular concession speech, it will still be Trump, falsely, claiming the election was stolen from him - as he always does whenever things don’t go his way - it will still end up with a Biden presidency. The last 4 years were stark, for the US and the world, but with Biden in office we can expect a return to trusting facts, a return to US allies, a return to some form of normalcy. Trump and his base won’t go away, the republican party can no longer survive without Trump, but this election is over and Joe Biden is the President elect of the United States of America.