January 21st – On the 20th local time, Biden officially announced his appointment as the 46th President of the United States.
On the same day, Trump also left the White House. Looking back on the past four years, the United States has experienced diplomatic difficulties, the coronavirus crisis, racial difficulties… a series of difficult and urgent real challenges, waiting for the new government to solve one by one.
The “scum” left by these previous governments also made foreign media sigh that although Trump left office, “the destructive impact he brought will not disappear”.
Coronavirus crisis
The New Year’s holiday should have been a peaceful and beautiful day.
However, for the United States, the worst of the coronavirus, the first ten days of 2021 have become particularly long: “Over 2.2 million new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 10 days” and “The surge in cases have brought the health care system to collapse”, a shocking fact that ruthlessly beat Americans who have long been tired. Exhausted nerves.
On the other hand, it is accompanied by a serious economic crisis caused by the epidemic.
According to AFP, the United States has lost 10 million jobs compared with the early stage of the outbreak.
As Biden said not long ago, “the country is still under a deadly virus and a crumbling economic burden.”
In the face of this unprecedented crisis, the Associated Press recently quoted several Democrats as saying, “The best way for Biden to unify the country and restore people’s confidence in the government is to achieve tangible results on issues of importance to all Americans.
Responding to the epidemic and solving the economic crisis remain the top priority. “
But reality is not easy.
In an article published on the 14th, the Washington Post said, “If Biden is to succeed, he must create more jobs in his first term, but this has not been possible for any president, including Clinton and Reagan, in recent years.”
The BBC also pointed out that Biden will inevitably be attacked for using the same administrative methods as Trump, and the anger of Trump’s loyal supporters – some Republicans – will also be highlighted.
As for the ambitious agendas sent to Congress for consideration, it is uncertain whether there will be enough support.
Racial problem
During Trump’s presidency, the United States has experienced many racist disturbances. In August 2017, the “white supremacist” rally in Virginia turned into a violent conflict.
In May 2020, 26 million people took to the streets to cry for racial injustice when the black American Freud was “kneeling” incident by white police to ferment into a demonstration across the United States.
On January 6 this year, the riots in the Capitol added new variables to this serious situation.
CNN wrote on the 17th that the riot had a huge impact on racial justice in the United States. Although Trump left office, the destructive impact he brought will not disappear.”
In fact, the issue of race has been at the core of Biden’s campaign and has launched multiple responses, but he has previously admitted that “racism in the United States is deeply rooted” and has always existed.
Regarding the Biden administration’s initiatives, the U.S. political news website (Politico) analyzed that racism in the United States has a long-term and systemic characteristics and “will not disappear because of a period of protest and the inauguration of the new president”.
“For us, diversity is just a chip on the table, and that’s the starting line for those changes that need to be made,” Aresha Hatch, vice president of Color of Change, a nonprofit civil rights organization, was also candid.
The British Guardian said more bluntly that the United States is fragmented by serious inequality, white supremacy and a large number of people who think “elections have been stolen”. Against this backdrop, Biden’s promise to “cure the country” may be seen as a “coax.”
Mask democracy
Because of the congressional riots that shocked the world on January 6, Trump’s Twitter and other social media accounts were permanently cancelled, which made him end his presidency in a bleak way because of his “Twitter governance”.
And the blocking of Trump on American social media has also triggered a heated debate among the public, and supporters and critics are arguing about the so-called “freedom of speech” in the United States.
In fact, this incident also unveiled the fig leaf of the so-called “freedom of speech” in the United States. The Washington Post pointed out that the so-called “freedom of speech” in the United States is just a “political weapon”.
The Spanish newspaper Le Monde commented that “American social networks, which are supposed to promote free communication, have eventually become tools for spreading false information and implementing political manipulation.”
On the other hand, behind the seemingly “justice” behavior of these social platforms is just speculation.
Russia’s newspaper The News quoted Zlobin, an expert at the World Security Institute in Washington, as saying that the American cyber giants have taken opportunistic actions and acted exactly according to their own wishes.
This is the embodiment of its double standards.
The New York Times also recently wrote a headline entitled “Does Trump’s lies undermine freedom of speech?” The article emphasizes that from this incident, “the fragility of democracy has long been manifested”.
Although Biden’s call for Americans to “it’s time to unite”, the “million march” from Washington and a series of violent conflicts and bloodsheds amply illustrate that the deep tearing of American society is obviously unable to eliminate it with such a slogan, and even the Biden government is unable to eradicate it.
Diplomatic dilemma
Since taking office, the Trump administration has adhered to the so-called “America first” policy in diplomacy and actively promoted unilateralism. In recent years, it has “retreated” without saying a word, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Paris Climate Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Agreement, and North American Freedom.
Trade agreements, WHO, etc. Before leaving office, the Trump administration announced that Cuba was listed as a “supporter of terrorism” and defined the Houthi in Yemen as a “foreign terrorist organization”.
In response, CNN quoted Raffaello Pantucci, a Singaporean scholar, as saying on the 13th: “The Trump administration is locking in a series of conflicts that have also changed Biden’s starting point of taking office on the world stage.” CNN also said, “And this also means that Biden will have to deal with several key diplomatic relations that are involved in controversy at the beginning of his term, and in some cases, it is a matter of life and death.”
In response to the above difficulties, Biden’s team said on the 16th that it would sign a number of executive orders, including rejoining the Paris Agreement and lifting the immigration “ban” for some countries, in order to “reverse the most serious damage caused by the Trump administration”. However, CNN analysis said that although Trump left, “his influence on the world will still appear in the coming years, and it will be difficult for the new government to clarify the last-minute decisions made by the previous government in the short term.”
Zhang Xiaoqing, a postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese-foreign humanities exchange research base of Peking University, wrote a few days ago that in fact, the deep tearing of American society did not begin with Trump.
Throughout American history, the farce caused by partisanship, economic crisis and ethnic contradictions has always been staged, but due to the inherent defects of the capitalist economy and democracy, these historical chronic diseases have not been eradicated, and the lower middle class, who are victims, can only be concentrated by social movements such as racism and ethnic conflicts. Catharsis of depression and dissatisfaction.
Singapore’s Lianzao Daily published an editorial on the 12th, pointing out that the current United States needs pragmatic backbone leadership more. However, the outlook for Biden’s administration is not optimistic.
He is nearly 80 years old. He is an old politician who has been immersed in traditional politics for nearly 50 years. Most of the cabinet members he chose are also familiar with acquaintances and include a considerable number of radicals, so it is difficult to imagine a substantial change.
In addition, the premise of any substantive change is political reform; the constitutional system design of the founders of the United States makes such reform extremely difficult.
The Washington Post also pointed out that in fact, COVID-19 is not the only reason why the United States is “sick”. Blind partisanship, broken trust and the general belief that the country is declining are depleting the energy of the United States.
And value bias, emotional and interest disputes will continue to divide the United States.
Financial Times columnist Wolf believes that even Biden will be difficult to reverse the trend of plutocratic and populism combined established under Trump’s presidency, and it will be more difficult to change the brand that Trumpism has left on the Republican Party.
As The New York Times said, it is not easy for Biden to heal the fragmented America.
