Read on Twitter
At noon on 1/20/21, Joseph R. Biden will be sworn in as the 46th POTUS. He will confront a daunting domestic agenda: the legacy of President Trump will include a rampant pandemic and a host of unresolved social, cultural, ideological, economic, and administrative problems. https://twitter.com/avindman/status/1335947550130647040
Having committed himself to being the president of all Americans, Biden will need to contend with the grievances of millions who did not support him and who even question the legitimacy of his election. These domestic concerns will consume the preponderance of his time & energy.
But Biden’s de facto leadership of the “free world” beyond the United States’ borders will be equally important. China, Russia, and other authoritarian states, which have long seen democracy as an existential threat, are on the offensive.
The “un-free” world seeks to undermine international norms, Western liberal values, and democracy itself in order to enable the ascendancy of autocratic governments and permit their exercise of raw power.
Biden will need to marshal the very strengths that define democratic government if he is to both mend domestic wounds and temper the threats that face democracies globally.
