Editorial
Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States this week under immense security – thanks to the unprecedented and unpresidential efforts of his predecessor to divide the country.
Donald Trump extended none of the courtesies of an outgoing president to an incoming one, and certainly nothing of the generosity of spirit shown to him by Barack Obama. It would have been strange had Trump finally found a modicum of grace, for in the last four years – with its crescendo only a fortnight ago in the assault on the Capitol – he has done everything he can to pander to the basest instincts and fears of some Americans.
Inciting hatred, lying, eschewing principle for personal profit at every turn, Trump must be – only days after leaving office – a prime contender for the US’s worst president in history. He was not alone on the global stage; his antics encouraged other despots, charlatans and rogues, many of whom are still in power abusing the desperate trust of their scared and bewildered citizenry.
In the US, though, there is hope – and an uphill battle – for Joe Biden and his history-making vice-president Kamala Harris to heal the divides. It was left to 22-year-old inauguration poet laureate Amanda Gorman to put it in words: “There is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it”.
Judging from Biden’s inaugural speech, we can have every hope that we will see just that, as he vowed that the US “will lead, not by the example of our power, but the power of our example”.
It’s a telling injunction not just for the US, but the entire world. We have had more than enough despots, tyrants and bullies – populists all – doing what they can because they believe they can.
The time is ripe for change.