President Biden: America leading force for good again

By Alper Ali Riza

Inauguration Day in the US is the living embodiment of the American constitution, which I proffered as a model for Cyprus last week. A model is not a transplant but a blueprint that inspires. America is not only a nation of immigrants and many nationalities, it is also one in which its constitution gives Americans a sense of belonging to their country, a sense which has been singularly lacking in Cyprus.

The strength of America’s constitution was on full display last Wednesday when Joe Biden took the oath as the 46th president of the US. Leader of the free world and of the American melting pot in all its diversity. As Biden jokingly told a BBC reporter, “I’m Irish.” His vice president is Jamaican Indian, married to a Jewish guy who is said to be America’s first second gentleman.

The office of US president is greater than the sum of its parts. The president is head of state as well as head of government and commander in chief, and although many Americans would never admit it, what they do every four years is elect a king and Inauguration Day is his or her coronation.

The president’s inauguration address is not quite like the Queen’s speech in UK in which she reads out her government’s legislative programme, rather it sets the tone of his administration.

President Joe Biden’s address was well constructed; it had many themes with unity at its core. He began with an oblique condemnation of the storming of Capitol Hill three weeks ago, noting that democracy is fragile but that it prevailed with a peaceful transfer of power despite the shenanigans of a bad-loser president who did not want to relinquish power.

He then addressed the pandemic and the lives and jobs and businesses it has cost and followed by highlighting the problems of racial injustice and climate change, all of which were top of his executive order in-tray.

As I say, the main thrust of his speech was reserved for unity, the most elusive of things in a democracy, he said. And then, in a passage that marked a clear departure from Trump’s “make America great again” slogan in 2017, his clarion call was “to make America the leading force for good in the world.”

He acknowledged the constant struggle between the American ideal that people are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality of inequality and iniquity but that in the end, “our better angels” always prevailed – a passage in his speech that was not lost on the Chinese leadership.

In another reference to his predecessor he urged Americans to stop shouting and end the bitterness and fury. In a direct attack on Trump he urged Americans to reject “a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured…There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit.”

But his refrain was unity. “Hear me out,” he pleaded with those who disagree with his policies. But he conceded the right to dissent peaceably is probably America’s greatest strength though so long as it was not divisive.

And then a pledge: “I will be a President for all Americans. I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did…We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.”

Trump was so divisive he even divided America between those who mask and those who childishly refuse to mask. It reminded me of the egg war between the big enders and little enders in Gulliver’s travels in which political leaders went to war over which end to crack soft boiled eggs, which I have to say is also what I think of the political classes on both sides in Lilliputian Cyprus.

Alas President Biden did not mention the Cyprus problem but he did address the world. He promised to repair America’s alliances and engage with the world again to meet current and future challenges. Unfortunately, his speech writer inserted the only cheesy bit in an otherwise impeccable speech: “We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example.”

He called for tolerance and humility and “a willingness to stand in the other person’s shoes” because life’s a bitch sometimes – or, as he put it, “there is no accounting for what fate will deal you.”

He then asked everyone to pray silence momentarily in memory of the 400,000 who died in the pandemic, before going on to enumerate America’s problems: the attack on American democracy, a raging virus, growing inequality, systemic racism, climate in crisis, and Trump’s sour relations with America’s allies.

Finally he promised to defend the constitution and democracy and of course America.

It was a very reassuring address. It was also very reassuring to see the whole American establishment in masks. Social distancing was not, however, maintained and although most of those present were probably vaccinated they behaved in the same careless way as the super spreader event at the White House when Trump introduced his new appointment to the Supreme Court in the White House lawn where a number of guests caught the virus.

After the inauguration President Biden went to the White House and started signing executive orders reversing many of Trump’s policies. Executive orders are directives to federal government agencies about how to carry out executive authority.

They derive from the fact that under the constitution the executive arm of government is at the discretion of the president. Executive orders are more in the nature of administration than legislation and are made as easily as they are revoked.

The president shares some legislative powers with Congress and Congress shares some executive powers with the president in key areas of policy such as making treaties.

President Biden decided to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement by executive order rather than getting Congress to ratify it because it is easier and quicker, though now that his party controls the Senate he may wish to get it properly ratified by Congress.

The whole world heaved a sigh of relief as Trump’s departure in Air Force One climbed the cold Washington sky without turning back – his helicopter, Marine One, momentarily turned back and headed for the White House last Wednesday sending a shiver down humanity’s spine. All’s well that ends well.

 

Alper Ali Riza is a queen’s counsel in the UK and a retired part time judge