President Biden

It is now official. Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States with two entry records: he is the longest-serving president and has received the most votes in the history of the country, over 75 million, driven by an extraordinary turnout that has given him a considerable advantage over his rival, who also received more votes than in 2016, and that makes his triumph even more remarkable.

At the time of writing and while the American streets explode in spontaneous popular celebrations of joy, Donald Trump has not yet accepted his defeat and continues to throw falsehoods about "fraud", vote theft and conspiracies of the corrupt without providing any evidence to support these claims. And he threatens long court battles that can last for weeks, with recounts and lawyers lining up with the lawsuits. It lacks elegance to the end, unlike Ford, Bush (Sr.) and Carter when they also failed to win re-election. They all lost, but they went out the big door, which is not what Trump does, who as I write refuses to accept that he has lost.

After four long years of lies, of governing on impulses of inspiration, of being unpredictable, of changing his mind as quickly as his collaborators, of insulting minorities, journalists and the intelligence services, he is accused of sexual harassment by several women, of misogyny, of encouraging racial problems, of not recognizing the seriousness of the coronavirus and thus contributing to its expansion, of fighting equally with friends and enemies, of abandoning the Paris Climate Treaty, the Nuclear Agreement with Iran, the Trans-Pacific Treaty, of abandoning the WTO, the WHO, UNESCO, of supporting Brexit and authoritarian and illiberal leaders, of not renegotiating the limitation of intercontinental ballistic missiles with Russia and of engaging in trade wars with China and Europe. .. After all that and more, after giving up leadership of the global response to the Civid-19 pandemic, Donald Trump finally leaves the White House after a very angry elections that reveal the deep fracture that the country is suffering, which began with the Tea Party in 2009 and has only grown since then.

Because the country is very divided and needs a man like Biden who promises to try to heal that wound and govern for all Americans. He will or could have a serious problem because everything seems to indicate that, except for some last minute changes, Biden will not control the Senate and will have Mitch McConnell, the formidable Republican majority leader, in front of him, ready to deny him bread and salt and make things very complicated. McConnell was the one who opposed with all his strength the Democratic maneuvers to remove Trump (Impeachment) and who later led the sessions that got another conservative judge, Amy Coney Barrett, to join the Supreme Court a few days before the election. Legal, to be sure, but unethical and unsightly.

Americans in this election have decided that they want a president who unites, not divides, a president who heals racial wounds and leads the common fight against the pandemic. They want a president who believes in democracy and who respects the Constitution and the division of powers. That they want a president who can lead the world and bring it back to a multilateralism based on cooperation, clear rules and international organizations and treaties capable of upholding them.

There will be time to analyze what Biden will do in domestic policy on issues such as immigration, taxes, investments, the fight against unemployment and inequalities ... or in foreign policy matters such as his relationship with the European Union, China and Russia. Or the Middle East, where everything seems to indicate that the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu or Mohammed bin Salman will not be the same as that between Donald Trump and himself.

What must be clear today is that Trumpism does not disappear with Donald Trump because with 66 million votes, 47% of the electorate and 88 million followers on Twitter, the populist wave that led him to the presidency is still alive. And it will complicate the presidency for Joe Biden. Especially if the Republicans control the Senate.
But there will be time to regret it. Today is a day to celebrate the departure from the White House of a very unusual president. To put it mildly. It's time for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We must wish them luck. They deserve it.