‘Decency, Democracy Win’: How Biden’s Win Shaped Int’l Media Opeds

The US administration has officially left the Paris agreement, three years after US President Trump declared that they intended to, but Democratic candidate Joe Biden claims that “a Biden Administration will rejoin it”.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Bold headlines in the newspapers, TV channels blaring visuals of people celebrating – the news of Joe Biden as the President-elect and Kamala Harris as the Vice President-elect of the United States of America is the top news of the day.

"We've won with the most votes ever cast on a presidential ticket in the history of the nation... 74 million,” Biden said, as he addressed the nation for the first time on Saturday, 7 November, since their projected victory.

Initial reports already suggest that once sworn-in, Biden is planning to sign a series of executive orders that will create a shift in the country’s politics and radically different priorities will be set.

When the power of authority transitions from one leader to another, there could be significant changes, but the shift from Trump to Biden will change the course of American history, several media outlets opined.

Here is a look at some of the opinion pieces in international media outlets that have done a deep-dive into how Biden should work through the chaos left behind by Trumps’ divisive politics, what the people of America expect for him and what his immediate plan of action should be.

Victory for Joe Biden, at Last

"Having peered into the abyss of autocratic nationalism, the American people have chosen to step back from the brink," read an editorial piece in The New York Times.

“Biden’s win will mark an end to President Trump’s ‘four-year assault on our democratic institutions and values," read the article. “The tally however, does disappoint both sides: Biden supporters hoped for a more resounding repudiation of Trumpism and for a Senate ready to enact their agenda, and for Trump supporters, they wished he got an extended tenure.”

“Come January, Mr Biden will take office facing a jumble of crises. His predecessor is leaving America weaker, meaner, poorer, sicker and more divided than four years ago. Recent events have laid bare, and often exacerbated, many of the nation’s pre-existing conditions: from the inadequacy of our health care system to the cruelty of our immigration policies, from entrenched racial inequities to the vulnerabilities of our electoral system. Mr. Biden has pledged himself to big thinking and bold action in tackling these challenges.”

The New York Times

Joe Biden, Democracy and Decency Win a Presidential Election for the Ages

USA Today posted an interesting editorial piece on how a president ‘who had no prior public-service experience’ and is narcissistic and indecent is being replaced with one who is known for being ‘unusually compassionate and caring.’

‘They replaced a divider with a uniter’ which is exactly what the country needs considering the chaos caused by the predecessor and in the midst of a worsening public health emergency. The article outlined how Biden's appeal lied in not attacking doctors, the integrity of the democratic institutions, racist fear mongering and propagating fake news.

Reports already suggest that Biden is looking at passing a line of executive decisions to overturn Trump’s policies when he is sworn into office. The top priority is ‘to restore America's tattered global reputation by rejoining the Paris climate accord.’

“Beyond that, the details of a legislative strategy can be worked out over time. For now, in many ways America just needs a return to the normality that previous presidents of both parties exhibited. President-elect Joe Biden’s victory represents the political equivalent of Alka-Seltzer, a product introduced 11 years before he was born. As the old commercial jingle put it: Oh, what a relief it is.”

USA Today

Trumpism Isn’t Dead. The Battle for Free Democracies Just Got Harder

In a column in The Guardian, Simon Tisdall wrote about how Biden’s demeanour during the confusion of the tally numbers was exemplary as he calmly called for patience. His biggest winning point was that he ‘stuck scrupulously to known facts’ and stressed that he will take care of Democrats and Republicans alike, he wrote.

On the other hand stood Trump with his ‘conspiracy theories, shameless lies and distortion, vote suppression, vilification of opponents and independent media, abuse of power, corruption and self-glorification.’ The hope is that Biden will ‘heal America’s divisions’ and restore normalcy in the democracy.

“Most European governments privately wanted to see the back of him. They hope the Biden presidency will bring a return to consensus-building on issues such as the climate crisis, will revive transatlanticism, and reboot the rules-based international order to help contain China and deter Russia.Exceptions may be Boris Johnson’s government, which relied on Trump’s help on Brexit, and conservative-led Poland and Hungary.Yet Europeans will be fooling themselves if they think Trump’s humbling signals the defeat, either in America or abroad, of the politics of fear or the antagonistic beliefs and hateful prejudices he peddles and personifies.”

Simon Tisdall in The Guardian

A Victory for Biden – and for the American People

The next four years will be the ultimate test for US President-elect Joe Biden to
put his ‘legendary empathy’ to great use and if he can enact policies that would ‘restore the middle class and build America back – better, fairer and stronger.’

An editorial piece in Los Angeles Times, commented on how Biden first needs to find a way to reassure a divided America and ensure to be a good leader for all citizens, irrespective of whether they voted for him or not.

“For now Biden – and California, and the nation – can be forgiven for not focusing immediately on those herculean challenges. It is enough, today, to be thankful that the American people – coming out in droves, in a pandemic, to exercise their most important freedom – have righted a ship of state that was perilously off course.”

Los Angeles Times

Biden’s Mandate for Moderation

Larry Hogan writes in The Wall Street Journal on how Joe Biden won the popular vote not only because of his party’s position but because America was fed up with ‘bitter partisanship, divisiveness and dysfunction.’

He should prove how he will embrace the present chaotic situation and introduce economic policies to heal the America left behind by Trump.

“During the campaign, Mr Biden deflected questions about his party’s embrace of massive tax hikes, the Green New Deal and other economic policies that would crush the economic recovery, instead focusing on the president’s record and character. In the first debate, when confronted with these extreme policies widely embraced by his fellow Democrats, Mr Biden stated: ‘I am the Democratic Party.’ Now is the time for him to prove it. Placating the far-left base of the party may have been an effective campaign strategy, but it is not a viable approach to governing. Joe Biden now must choose whether he wants to be a unifier or a progressive activist.”

Larry Hogan in The Wall Street Journal