Biden assumes office as US faces polarization, division
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago
Democrat Joe Biden has been inaugurated as president of the United States, replacing the highly-controversial Donald Trump.
As a result of entrenched - but minority - perceptions of electoral fraud, there was not a peaceful transfer of power. The nation’s capital was locked down into a fortress, with more soldiers than the US uses to occupy both Afghanistan and Iraq. State capitols were similarly swarming with troops nationwide.
The inauguration is being called a merciful conclusion to an electoral campaign which seemingly started the day after the election of Trump in 2016, and then the most divisive vote in recent memory.
Biden’s inaugural speech spoke often of “healing” and “reconciliation” but Democrats and Republicans seem to have been at each other’s throats for four consecutive years. How Biden can switch off this mutual animosity may be the most urgent problem he faces, but it may also be the most difficult.
Biden inherits an America which may be at its lowest point in history: America in 2020 combines 1930s economic depression, 1960s cultural division, 1860s concerns with White supremacy, and 1780s questions of political legitimacy.
The coronavirus is killing Americans faster than ever, a highly-divisive Senate trial of the recently impeached Trump looms, gun sales and murder records were recently recorded nationwide and the country remains on high alert for acts of political terrorism, to name a few of the worst problems.
Both Biden and vice president Kamala Harris are considered to be on the right-wing of the Democratic Party. Biden’s cabinet is filled with holdovers from the era of Barack Obama, during which Biden was the vice-president.
Kamala Harris has become the highest-ranking woman ever in American history.
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