“Joe
Biden is as good a man as God ever created.”
—U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC
Shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President
in January 2017, I posted an essay entitled “Expectations of a
Trump Presidency”. The intent was to imagine
Trump’s four years in office, based upon what we had seen and learned from two
years of his campaigning. When I recently \reread that essay, I was surprised
at how prescient the conclusions proved to be. Four years later, we have now
inaugurated a new President – Joe Biden. It therefore seems appropriate to
similarly speculate on what we might anticipate from his next four years.
Given the events, conduct and outcomes of Trump’s four years
in office, one must necessarily insert a context to properly determine
expectations of a Biden presidency. Donald Trump drastically changed the
landscape of the Presidency and Executive Branch – indeed, all parts of the
federal government – as well as the interactions and perspectives of the
citizens that government serves. Therefore Joe Biden’s presidency will initially
be defined and driven largely by reacting to Donald Trump’s legacy, rather than
starting from Biden’s own aspirations and political platform. That reaction will
need to focus on four key areas:
TRUTH: We all know that politicians will at times stretch
the truth or a perspective in ways that will cast them in the best light. But
not until the last four years has lying become the given, the reflexive
response, with truth hidden away unseen in the dense forest of obfuscation. No thoughtful
decisions, no effective actions, are achievable in such a distorted climate.
The most fundamental priority for the Biden presidency is to restore the
telling of the Truth into the national dialog. Certainly there are times when
multiple truths can legitimately collide against each other. But only by facing
those truths can we successfully plot our course with a reasonable expectation
of achieving our objectives. Credibility is an essential foundation for
leadership.
RULE OF LAW: Since the adoption of our Constitution in 1788,
our allegiance has been to that Constitution, not to an imperial king or queen.
Our government is subservient to that Constitution. Its elected and appointed officials are
subservient to the citizenry. The Rule of Law took a setback over the past four
years, as our president flagrantly ignored Constitutional principles, legal
requirements, and historical precedent and conventions. He exposed holes in our
operating structures that had never been seen or anticipated before, and defied
“legal process,” in an effort to convert the Executive Branch into a political
extension of his own making. Restoring
the Rule of Law as our guiding principle, strengthening the structures that
execute the Law, and rebuilding the trust of the citizenry in impartial
execution, is paramount.
REBUILDING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES: The various departments,
bureaus, agencies that make our government function were decimated over the
past four years. Internationally respected offices were decimated by budget
cuts; staffing cuts and/or leaving posts vacant; wholesale closing of offices;
constant turnover in leadership positions, replaced by “acting” agency heads;
muzzling and/or blocking personnel from executing their job description. This
decimation was extended through politicizing agency missions by subjugating them
to a reelection agenda; appointing incompetent and untrained people – with
fealty only to the president – to leadership positions; obviating accountability
requirements by firing various Inspectors General and inflicting retribution on
(supposedly) protected whistleblowers. There is much for our government to do
in the days ahead. None of those things can get done until the workforce is
rebuilt – in quantitative as well as competency terms – and their missions are
reestablished, performed under an ethical apolitical umbrella. Government does
not function when the People do not trust that well-qualified people are doing
the jobs expected of them.
WORLD LEADERSHIP: For most of its young life, America
adopted an isolationist stance, happy to go about its business with minimal
interaction and interference from Europe and with other countries of the world.
That changed when Pearl Harbor committed America to a new role of principal
leadership in global affairs, working in partnership with other countries in
formal treaties and ad hoc engagements, articulating the case for democracy. Our
leadership has not eliminated wars, but the world has become more mutually
intertwined, culturally and economically, to the mutual benefit of all. America
– by word, by deed, by its steadfastness – has been the linchpin for this
current stability. These relationships have been turned upside down and severely
tested over the past four years. Our adversaries have seemingly become new-found
“friends”; long-standing true friends have been pushed aside as new
adversaries. The America countries have depended upon for years has walked away
from its global opportunities and obligations; our word, and our participation,
is now suspect. At a time when the countries of the world are more connected
and interdependent than ever, America has become a minor player in world
affairs. These relationships demand to be rebuilt for the benefit of all.
Today, there is a laundry list of specific issues that
demand our attention. Most critical are the inter-joined issues of the Covid
pandemic and our crippled economy that have upended our daily lives. After that
come issues of climate change and the environment; of health care reform and
access; immigration reform / DACA / caged children; racial justice; the
continuing assault on voting rights; policing reform; livable wage / economic
disparity; etc. It would be great to attack all of these issues immediately and
concurrently. But that is not possible given the status our government has been
brought to. We first have to rebuild the infrastructure and capacity of our
government in order to address our national laundry list, else we will flounder
in the sea of good intentions not realized. We need to rebuild with the right people,
policies, clarity of mission. This rebuilding will require patience from a
citizenry whose patience runs very thin these days. But it is the first
priority for America before much else can be done.
Can Joe Biden accomplish this rebuilding task, especially in
these hyper-partisan times? I honestly do not know. I do know he will need wide
support to get it done. Support from people whose first concern is for the
Country, not their personal agenda nor their reelection prospects. Joe Biden is
not intuitively a big-picture thinker. A political moderate, he sees things in
much more of a “task to do” working-class mentality: here’s a problem, let’s
solve it, and use a hefty dose of common sense in the solution. We have witnessed
the damage an inexperienced “outsider” president can do through four years of a
pretend President who failed to understand and neglected the institution of the
Presidency. In contrast, Joe Biden’s 30+ years of experience in the federal
government gives us a president who should know his way across the playing
field of governance, operating with a genuine understanding of people’s needs
and with minimal malice in his heart.
Getting things done. That is what we need right now. The big
visionary dreams can perhaps come later. Made possible by a well-functioning
government in which we can have confidence and pride. Joe Biden likely will not
be a candidate for a future likeness on Mount Rushmore. But will he get this
very important core job done? If so, he could just be one of those right people
who shows up at the right moment for the right need. We shall see.
© 2021
Randy Bell https://ThoughtsFromTheMountain.blogspot.com
