President Biden.
That’s going to take some getting used to after these past four years.
The new president was sworn in Wednesday and made an inaugural address aimed at unity. Biden didn’t sugarcoat, however, the hurdles to bringing Americans together, and he leaned into the challenges the U.S. faces, as he sees it.
Here are six takeaways from Biden’s inauguration:
- A starkly different tone was set.
If there’s one thing that stood out most, it was the tone that Biden struck. Gone was the tension, defiance and grievance of Donald Trump. Instead, America saw a staid and humble President Biden. Instead of igniting flames of division, he was trying to take the temperature down.
“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue,” Biden said. “Rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes, as my mom would say, just for a moment stand in their shoes.”
For a significant portion of the country, Biden’s speech began a disburdenment of the daily anxiety and unpredictability of the Trump presidency. Some Republicans even praised his speech. For another large group of Americans, though, they are now worried about the direction the country will take.
Overall, as unusual as the day was because of the heavy security presence and the lack of crowds due to COVID-19 and threats, it seemed like Washington was headed for something of a return to normal.
For a day at least, the four years of whiplash had come to an end, which was summed up well in three very different scenes at the U.S. Capitol on the first three Wednesdays of this January: one of the Jan. 6 violence, one of Trump’s impeachment and then one of Biden’s inauguration.
- Real unity will be tough to come by.
Trying to bridge the gap of hard feelings, Biden did something Trump rarely did — reach out to those who didn’t vote for him. And he wasn’t so naive as to talk about it in a way that showed he thinks it would be easy or happen at all.
“To all those who did not support us,” Biden said, “let me say this: Hear me out as we move forward. Take a measure of me and my heart. If you still disagree, so be it. That’s democracy. That’s America. The right to dissent peaceably within the guardrails of our republic is perhaps our nation’s greatest strength. Yet hear me clearly: Disagreement must not lead to disunion.”
Certainly, this was no Trump “American carnage” speech. But tone is one thing, and policy is another.
A return to “normal” may mean a return to the same old passive-aggressive polite gridlock mixed with partisan bickering. Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress, but only very narrowly. Biden will likely need Republicans for most of his major legislative agenda items, including his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan, a comprehensive immigration overhaul or almost anything else.
And it won’t solve the problem of the tens of millions of Trump supporters who are fed and believe a daily diet of false information — and who make up the base of the Republican Party.
Speaking of those priorities, Biden listed the policy approaches that he believes would lead to healing in America. They include addressing COVID-19, racial justice, climate change and domestic extremism, including white supremacy. He is the first president to address white supremacy in an inaugural address.
