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Celebrate!

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Foto: Reuters

Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States and, for the first time, we have a woman in the executive.

Kamala Harris becomes the first woman and person of color to occupy the vice-presidency.

Thus, and for the first time, 51% of the population – women – are participating in the country’s executive.

It’s about time.

Now many are asking whether the glass is half empty or half full.

Half empty because over 70 million Americans voted for a continuation of the Trump nightmare – a telling factor that underscores the depths to which many Americans have fallen through their continuing support for the most racist and divisive president in recent memory.

Half empty because Trump will do all that he can to make the transition as difficult and complicated as possible.

And half empty because, although Biden has defeated Trump, Trump’s Republican enablers – people like Senators McConnell, Graham, Rubio and Cruz – will continue to occupy key positions of power in Washington and can thwart many if not all of Biden’s legislative initiatives through the Republican majority in the Senate and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

But, also, the glass is half full because Biden brings a positive and uniting decency to the post.

His campaign was a positive one and strategically sound.

His electoral college victory is matched by his victory in the popular vote, unlike the situation in 2016.

Also, unlike Hillary Clinton in 2016, he was able to unite the Democrats – akin to herding cats at the best of times.

As well, and again unlike Clinton, he campaigned strategically in key swing states, including Pennsylvania, the state that finally put him over the top.

Biden’s victory proves that a united democratic front can topple an authoritarian populist in fair and free elections.

It also strikes a blow against ageism. As the oldest person to assume the presidency, Biden demonstrates that our elders can contribute to the future as much as our youth can and that wisdom born of experience is a valuable commodity in a leader.

Authoritarian leaders often govern on the basis of divide and rule. They also count on the inability of opposition groups to unite and opposition leaders to set aside personal ambition and coalesce behind one leader in order to win.

One has only to look at the example of Venezuela to see how a disunited opposition can miss its opportunity through the inherent weakness of their divided parties.

The same happened in the U.S. 2016 when Clinton was unable to bring the Sanders minority into the fold and present a united front against an ultimately victorious Trump.

2020 has been an extremely difficult year worldwide. COVID 19 has infected millions around the world, decimated whole economies, killed over a million people, cast an additional 500 million into poverty, and left tens of millions unemployed with no hope of respite any time soon.

Biden has a tremendous task ahead of him.

He has to find a way for America to rejoin the global community to fight the pandemic and recast or reform the international institutions that such a global approach will demand.

He has to start the process to bring 70 million Trump supporters into a renewed political conversation. One that creates a dialogue based on respect and outreach, that sees consensus as a respectable political option, and that replaces the current divisions with a style of governance that includes all Americans in the political process.

He has to address the deep racial and social divides that have been given oxygen by the previous administration and exacerbated over the years by leaders incapable or unwilling to address their fundamental causes.

A difficult task indeed given the expected complexion of the Senate leadership, and a goal that will not be achieved in four years.

But the Biden presidency is a reprieve from what could have been from four more years of Trump. It is also a chance for the United States to fulfill the aspirations of all Americans and contribute to a more rational world order.

And that is something to celebrate in this difficult and awful year as Americans place their hopes in a new administration and the world wishes the United States well in its efforts to regain a moral leadership that the world so desperately needs.

[email protected]

Edición: Ana Ordaz


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