Biden, president

Actually, the big news of the day is not so much that the election data confirms Joe Biden as president of the United States. And Kamala Harris as his vice president, the first time that a woman, and one of color, has ever held such a position. The big news is that Donald Trump has been forced by American voters to leave the White House. His presidency, an inevitable continuation of his lamentable personal history of uncontrollable psychotics, has seen the most shameful attempts to break the country's institutional architecture, alter the constitutional balances, ruthlessly insult those who did not share his views or refused to indulge his whims, and ultimately subject the citizenry to a passive part of his empire. His obvious dream was to turn the United States of America into a gigantic Trump Tower designed for his needs and demands. That will no longer be possible.

Of course, at the time of writing, the process is not complete. There are still some pending recounts, which will surely increase the numerical difference in favor of Biden, and there are still, above all, the judicial tantrums of the defeated, determined to demonstrate against all evidence that the Democrats have illegally stolen the presidency from him. And there remains, of course, the process of the constitutionally set dates: the confirmation by the Electoral College of the final results, their proclamation by the House of Representatives and, on January 20, the inauguration and swearing in of the new president.

And it is sadly evident that the defeated one is willing to dirty as much as possible the process that throws him out of the White House. There is no doubt that in order to do so, he will exploit to the fullest the fact that until January 20, and along with the attempts to blockade by judicial means, he will be able to continue being the tenant of the White House. It would not be strange if the notables of the Republican Party took advantage of the occasion to convince him, physically if necessary, that his time is up and that the time for jokes, rudeness and obscenities has passed.

But there are still uncertain weeks that, without the possibility of altering the result, may unfortunately show the murderous wills of those who conceive power as a definitive and intransitive acquisition. They are those who believe, and say, that the opposition will never reach the Government.
From Biden we can expect, first of all, a return to the predictability of national and international behavior for which the United States had been generally known and appreciated over the course of the last seven decades, those since the end of World War II. Behaviours marked by respect for and promotion of representative democracy inside and outside the country, by the acceptance of the constitutional norms that constitute the rule of law, by the recognition of the political and ideological pluralisms that characterize all free societies. And internationally by the maintenance of a core of alliances and understandings described by its adherence to the principles of representative democracy and liberal multilateralism as a global concept.

 This is the exact opposite of what Trump has had as a rule of conduct throughout his tenure: contempt for national institutions and the people who represented them - and one need only read the abundant literature that his former friends and colleagues have published on this subject to see how low his standards have been - and a taste for getting close to dictators and their apprentices in this world, whether they be North Koreans, or Russians, or Saudis, or Chinese, or Turks, or Filipinos. Always under the banner of the unorthodox populism that from Brazil to Spain, passing through Poland or Hungary, on the right or the left, seeks to impose the "dogma of truth" on any other process of democratic respect and political progress.

Of course, it should not be forgotten that nearly 70 million Americans have decided to cast their votes in favor of populist trumpism, hooked on the nationalist claims of "America First" or "Make America Great Again. The fact that there are 5 million votes left behind those obtained by Biden should not make us forget this fact and its possible consequences. And induce an indispensable analytical reflection on the matter: it would not be strange if, even after admitting his defeat, Trump tried to take over the leadership of the defeated Republican Party with the aim of repeating his presidential candidacy in 2024.

And on the side of Biden, who has declared his willingness to be the "President of all Americans," it is urgent to facilitate a solution of peaceful understanding between the diverse and opposing tendencies of his own party, those that range from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to the centrism that he himself represents. The hope of his voters, and of the entire world, is that he will return what remains the most powerful country in the world to the path of democratic and rational predictability for which the country had been recognized. 

These considerations of urgency deserve further reflection in the light of the events that will follow and the consequences that may arise from them. Including the threatening cries of Trump and his followers for what happened. But no one should be mistaken: Biden's victory, in the turbulent and uncertain times we are going through, is great and good news. It allows us to renew our confidence in democracy and its benefits. It is no small thing. 

Javier Rupérez/Embassador of Spain