Prameela K
Published on: 29 January 2021, 06:19 am
Hope has once again surged into the US with the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris combine and an experienced set of leaders. But if they focus on just undoing the Trump legacy, they would have missed the mark. They have to leapfrog to deliver on promises long deferred. The complex issues that have to be tackled are staggering. Biden brings the right temperament to the task, but does he bring the urgency? Will his and his team's competency be enough to deliver the goods, asks ROHIT TRIPATHI.
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THIS seemingly delayed analysis is actually timely. What would normally have been the conclusion of a normal presidential election way back in early November was anything but that. The results put into motion the darkest two months of the American republic, culminating in an unbelievable insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. It was not until the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the US on January 20 in the presence of 25,000 US troops, an American Green Zone, that the nation could exhale.
Sometimes the present is all-consuming and it is hard to look at the future with any optimism. At least in the US, a viable, competent and unity proclaiming alternative is now set to take power. Thus, a good dose of optimism is warranted. But the insurrection should have woken up every single believer in democracy in the US to the perils of a post-truth political system that is bent upon disfiguring it. We are dangerously close to the rupture we saw a century ago that led to the lowest form of human behaviour at Auschwitz and the likes. Democracy was an early casualty and humanity, its ultimate. For better or worse, the state of democracy in the US matters. Imperfect examples are still better than no examples.
Moving Fast
It's an open question if Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris can meet this moment. If they focus on just undoing the Trump legacy, then they would have missed the mark. The American energy that propelled both to the highest offices is demanding a leapfrogging to deliver on promises long deferred. Meeting this moment with incrementalism will make cynics out of America's most hopeful. Don't get me wrong. The range of complex issues at hand is simply staggering. Joe Biden is not a perfect man, but he is a decent one. We can't say that for a good number of leaders today. Biden brings the right temperament to the task, but does he bring the urgency?
