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If Biden Wins, He'll Have to Put the World Back Together
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/biden-will-inherit-post-pandemic-world/609853/
His post-pandemic agenda will have to be a master class in redesign.
If Joe Biden wins the election in November, he will likely be sworn inperhaps virtuallyunder the most challenging circumstances since Harry Truman became president in 1945. The country will probably be in the end stages of a brutal pandemic and faced with the worst economy since the Great Depression. The Treasury will be significantly depleted. Millions of people will have lost loved ones, their jobs, much of their net worth. Hopefully a vaccine or an effective treatment will be closer to reality, and our national attention can shift to what comes next.
We judge our great presidents by how they managed harrowing trials and wars: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Depression, followed by World War II; Ronald Reagan and the Cold War. But many of the bigger and less historically rewarding challenges are what come immediately afterhow to rebuild and remake the country and engage in the wider world. Think about Ulysses S. Grant and Reconstruction, Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations, Truman and the architecture to wage the Cold War, George H. W. Bush and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some failed; others succeeded. All faced enormous obstacles explaining what just happened, what had changed, and how we must adapt. This is the category of presidency that Biden, or Donald Trump if he is reelected, will find himself in.
If Trump wins, the country can expect more of what we have seen in the initial phase of dealing with COVID-19shifting the economic and health burden to the states and Congress, a lack of interest in international cooperation, and a refusal to critically scrutinize the response.
But what about Biden? The beginning of his presidency will have a unique logic and character that sets it apart from the early stages of the crisis. His first year will be shaped in various measures by the public reaction to the horrors of 2020, the national Rorschach test of seeing Trumps silhouette finally from a remove, and a dawning reality of exceedingly difficult choices across the board.
Bidens first and toughest challenge will be to address the badly frayed governance compact, in which citizens expect and trust the government to deliver on essential services. For decades, Republicans and Democrats have believed that the government needs fixing, albeit for very different reasons. Republicans tend to view much of the state apparatus, including regulatory bodies and social services, as inherently inefficient and run by entrenched, unaccountable bureaucrats. Democrats see our federal workforce as under-resourced and frequently subjected to quixotic and unreasonable demands from political leaders. However, many Americans, particularly those with means, have been shielded from the consequences of a broken government. The economy has generally been good, and the wealthy purchase better education and health care from the private sector.
His post-pandemic agenda will have to be a master class in redesign.
If Joe Biden wins the election in November, he will likely be sworn inperhaps virtuallyunder the most challenging circumstances since Harry Truman became president in 1945. The country will probably be in the end stages of a brutal pandemic and faced with the worst economy since the Great Depression. The Treasury will be significantly depleted. Millions of people will have lost loved ones, their jobs, much of their net worth. Hopefully a vaccine or an effective treatment will be closer to reality, and our national attention can shift to what comes next.
We judge our great presidents by how they managed harrowing trials and wars: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War; Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Depression, followed by World War II; Ronald Reagan and the Cold War. But many of the bigger and less historically rewarding challenges are what come immediately afterhow to rebuild and remake the country and engage in the wider world. Think about Ulysses S. Grant and Reconstruction, Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations, Truman and the architecture to wage the Cold War, George H. W. Bush and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some failed; others succeeded. All faced enormous obstacles explaining what just happened, what had changed, and how we must adapt. This is the category of presidency that Biden, or Donald Trump if he is reelected, will find himself in.
If Trump wins, the country can expect more of what we have seen in the initial phase of dealing with COVID-19shifting the economic and health burden to the states and Congress, a lack of interest in international cooperation, and a refusal to critically scrutinize the response.
But what about Biden? The beginning of his presidency will have a unique logic and character that sets it apart from the early stages of the crisis. His first year will be shaped in various measures by the public reaction to the horrors of 2020, the national Rorschach test of seeing Trumps silhouette finally from a remove, and a dawning reality of exceedingly difficult choices across the board.
Bidens first and toughest challenge will be to address the badly frayed governance compact, in which citizens expect and trust the government to deliver on essential services. For decades, Republicans and Democrats have believed that the government needs fixing, albeit for very different reasons. Republicans tend to view much of the state apparatus, including regulatory bodies and social services, as inherently inefficient and run by entrenched, unaccountable bureaucrats. Democrats see our federal workforce as under-resourced and frequently subjected to quixotic and unreasonable demands from political leaders. However, many Americans, particularly those with means, have been shielded from the consequences of a broken government. The economy has generally been good, and the wealthy purchase better education and health care from the private sector.
Way bigger than fixing the economy after the last Republican failure. There seems to be a pattern here of Republicans destroying everything and Democrats having to spend years fixing it. There is also unprecedented opportunity this time similar to what FDR faced in the great depression.
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If Biden Wins, He'll Have to Put the World Back Together (Original Post)
IronLionZion
Apr 2020
OP
Dems Need to Understand the Depth of the Destruction That Biden Has To Deal With
Indykatie
Apr 2020
#5
onecaliberal
(32,777 posts)1. He's the one who CAN.
DarthDem
(5,255 posts)2. Just Like Obama
But larger in scope as you rightly pointed out.
Joe Biden can do this, and he can assemble a team of experts and superbly capable governmental officials, scholars, and policy gurus to get it done.
calguy
(5,292 posts)3. That's why he's our nominee
The best qualified to do it.
A man whose time has come.
samsingh
(17,590 posts)4. He will have to be strong and ensure that it never happens again
Indykatie
(3,695 posts)5. Dems Need to Understand the Depth of the Destruction That Biden Has To Deal With
I will have no patience for Dems who whine that he's not moving fast enough on some of the items in the Dem platform. The one thing to be optimistic about is that Biden will bring in the best and brightest and they will come running when he calls.
Dem2theMax
(9,637 posts)6. He's up for the challenge. He will do the job.
Of that, I have no doubt.
GO JOE!!
IronLionZion
(45,380 posts)7. What Biden Learned the Last Time the World Stopped