Biden and Harris inauguration
Today, Joe Biden and Kamela Harris were inaugurated. The Capitol was like a fortress with 25,000 National Guard patrolling miles of fences with barbed wire. The show of force worked, with no violent disruptions by militias, white supremacists, and Trump loyalists who ransacked the Capitol two weeks ago.
It was strange hearing someone who’s presidential speaking from the podium—someone who could deliver a speech to all Americans. After I watched Biden’s inaugural address, there was a clip of Trump’s farewell speech, and the difference was shocking. We’ve all gotten used to Trump’s improvised stand up routines. I know that was part of the appeal to his followers—that he spoke with a common language. But we should expect more from our leaders.
Even though Biden is humble, he also has the overwhelming self-confidence of someone who’s been in public service for most of his life. He knows how the system is supposed to work. He had something like 17 Executive Orders on his desk today, which overturned many of Trump’s worst policies in a single day.
And let’s not forget the remarkable history that Kamala Harris made as the first woman to ascend to the vice presidency. It’s long-overdue.
I realized recently why there appears to be so much more time to think: it has everything to do with Trump being kicked off social media—about using mental energy to devote to what crazy thing he said. It’s frightening to see how powerful social media can be in the hands of a president/entertainer. But the silence has been serene. I only hope Biden returns to more formal channels of communication, like press conferences, where he can have a dialogue—instead of sending out to one-way tweets that echo around the world.
I can only hope that the Biden presidency will bring the back the cold light of the truth to the American conversation. There’s no room for a blizzard of lies anymore. We saw what can happen when the lies are repeated over and over by the president. As I’ve written before, some people will always believe what the president says, because of the power and respect that office holds.
But it’s clear that we can’t take the truth for granted—even for Biden. We’ve seen presidents lie before, but never on a Trumpian scale. Things like elections that were won by over 7 million votes shouldn’t be in dispute. The gaslighting that Trump and his pals engaged in bordered on the psychotic—especially when it came to COVID-19. Someday we’ll get a full accounting of how many lives we could have saved with the truth.
