More than 80 million Americans breathed a sigh of relief once it became clear that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had defeated his rival, Donald Trump, in the 2020 election. Biden's victory represented a crucial triumph of the ideals of competency and compassion, as well as personal decency and integrity, over that of chaos, cruelty, and complete and utter ineptitude — not to mention plenty of duplicity and dishonesty.
It was a good day for the United States (or rather, a good few days, what with all the mail-in ballots that required counting), even if a sizeable portion of the electorate did not celebrate Biden's win, or accept the validity of the results, regardless of the absence of evidence confirming undue influence.
Regardless, with Trump's reign of turmoil nearly at an end, most Americans (and most American allies for that matter) can now be thankful that they have a return to the relative normalcy of U.S. politics that was the pre-Donald years. This normalcy will be necessary if the country and its citizenry will ever fully heal from the wounds of discord and disunity that have been self-inflicted over the past four years.
As time passes, however, the electorate's gratitude and appreciation for political normalcy will wane. Citizens will once again concentrate solely on their own health and welfare, as well as of that of their families, neighbours, and communities, as is only natural. The importance of political normality will simply fade into the background, just as it did in 2016, when Trump surpassed all expectations to defeat Hillary Clinton.
It's an important lesson for Biden to remember, particularly as be continues along in the process of appointing nominees to his cabinet.
Thus far, Biden has prioritized the selection of individuals with extensive policy knowledge and experience in their chosen fields of study; a marked contrast of the buffoons Trump chose to advance. Biden has also admirably appointed many of his nominees from several underrepresented groups, including Alejandro Mayorkas, a Latino immigrant and Linda-Thomas-Greenfield, an African American woman, among several others.
Alas, as preferable as these individuals are from those in Trump's neo-con cabinet, none are openly affiliated with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. In fact, some, such as newly appointed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, appear cut from the same cloth as their Republican predecessors. Both appointees have some exceptionally bloodstained records from their previous positions in government, stemming from a dangerously misguided belief in the power of U.S. military aggression.
Not only this, but Biden has surrounded himself with executives from some of the wealthiest corporations in the world. His transition team consists of rich elites from any number of companies, including the likes of Amazon, Capital One, Uber, JPMorgan, and Visa.
At the same time, progressive standard bearers Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren continue to be sidelined, with little hope of gaining cabinet promotion. That both senators are highly influential, with sizeable followings amongst the public, appears of little concern to Biden.
Why would it though?
The Democratic Party is his party now. And as long as he is in charge, the only one's crying will be the progressives he leaves on the outskirts of his administration.
Of course, there are still many more cabinet positions yet for Biden to fill. He may have several progressive picks up his sleeve he just has not shown.
Yet, judging by his first few cabinet nominations, Biden is once again prioritizing centrist, status quo Democrats, more bent on making incremental changes to the system, over working-class, progressive champions; something which will no doubt pave the way for another ruinous Republican resurgence. Well, at least once Americans lose some of their memories of Trump and the chaos he unleashed.
As always, Bernie Sanders summed up this concern better than any other.
In a recent opinion to the Guardian, he wrote that, "If the Democratic party cannot demonstrate that it will stand up to… powerful institutions and aggressively fight for the working families of this country… we will pave the way for another right-wing authoritarian to be elected in 2024. And that president could be even worse than Trump."
Photo Credit: NY Times
