Joe Biden claims his anti-Trump presidency

“Let’s begin the work to heal and unite America and the world,” Biden said.

His recruits, many of whom are proteges, represent the antithesis of Trump’s authoritarian, America First, and anti-science White House philosophy, style and behavior, driven by conspiracy theories and a cult of the personality.

Biden’s domestic, health and economic policy teams, which are expected to be revealed after Thanksgiving, will likely share the same mix of experience and knowledge after catching the attention of an elected president who has more years on his clock in Washington than any modern predecessor.

“The purpose of our administration is once again to unite. We cannot keep this fierce political dialogue going. It must end,” Biden said.

Its main argument is this: the American people, after observing the chaos, nepotism and anti-intellectualism in government in the midst of a pandemic that has killed a quarter of a million of their fellow citizens and while the states -United have turned their backs on their friends abroad, now just want people who know what they are doing and don’t make too much noise while doing it. Each of its nominees was highlighted on Tuesday by Thomas-Greenfield, who is black, and Homeland Security Secretary candidate Alejandro Mayorkas, who is Hispanic, represent individual departures from Trumpism in terms of personality, background and background. qualifications.

Multilateralism, diplomacy, discreet competence, scientific rigor, inclusion, collegiality between senior officials, respect for officials, the intelligence community and the reception of immigrants are at the rendezvous.

Aggressive allies, populism, nationalism, White House backbiting, despot darlings, cabinet-kissing in-circle meetings, political hacks running spy agencies, and minimizing politically inconvenient threats – like killer viruses – are eliminated.

Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu believes Biden’s candidates reflect the man who chose them.

“The president-elect demonstrated and modeled what presidential behavior looks like,” Landrieu told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.

“He’s just trying to show the American people what it looks like when you have a balanced, stable, thoughtful and experienced president,” he said.

The president-elect will likely adopt the character again when he delivers a Thanksgiving speech to the American people from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday.

A completely different America

The sharp turn America will take on inauguration day Jan.20 reflects the tough choice that was in front of voters on Nov. 3 – which was only made clearer during Trump’s subsequent attempt to steal the election. . It also emphasizes the elasticity of an American political system that has the ingrained ability to counter the excesses of its leaders and often produces presidents who are the polar opposite of their predecessors.

Four years ago, Trump won an election after a campaign in which he vowed to destroy the political and economic establishment in Washington. His presidency tore apart the institutions of federal power and the elite consensus on economic, domestic, immigration and foreign policy.

In many ways, by placing his trust in seasoned Washington hands like Blinken and National Intelligence Director candidate Avril Haines, Biden is rebuilding this administrative state. Perhaps only the President-elect himself is a more established, experienced, and mainstream figure than former Secretary of State and longtime Senator John Kerry, who will serve as Presidential Envoy for Climate and is exactly the kind. citizen of the world whom Bannon and his traveling companions decry.

Biden makes no secret of his belief that more government is good. In a statement released on Monday after the Trump administration finally agreed to begin a transition, his team pledged to fully understand Trump’s “efforts to clear government agencies.”

And several of Biden’s national security candidates were on Monday to pay tribute to the invisible government officials who run the country but were treated as an enemy inside during the Trump years.

“My fellow career diplomats and government officials around the world. I want to tell you that America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back,” Thomas-Greenfield said. Haines spoke publicly with members of the secret community who were often on Trump’s target list.

“The work you do, often under the most austere conditions imaginable, is simply essential,” Haines said. Several candidates have offered loyalty to the American ideal, to Congress, to the American public and to democracy. While they all praised Biden, there were few over-the-top praise and expressions of personal loyalty that Trump demands from his subordinates. Haines told her new boss she would give him bad news he’d rather not hear, in another implicit criticism of the Trump administration.

Another breed of official

The impression of professionalism and competence imparted by the group contrasted with the late-term staff that Trump relied on, who in many cases were unqualified for large roles in the state, but thrived on prioritizing loyalty to the president.

Not all of Trump’s initial cabinet choices were made in the same mold. Those like Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were experienced and expert in their fields. But their attempts to play the role Biden expects from his appointments were frustrated when they were constantly undermined by Trump who saw his government as exclusively serving his personal needs. And these officials, dubbed “adults” in the press, frequently spent their time reigning under a president’s worst erratic impulses.

Biden’s approach is designed for the circumstances in which he will take office. With Covid-19 spiraling out of control, it will face a nation that sorely needs an organized strategy to deploy the vaccine that could restore normal life. Just not being Trump and re-signing the Paris climate agreement will give him instant victories on the world stage.

But in the longer term, the test of his presidency will be whether his vision of calm and deliberative leadership can pacify a nation whose politics resemble an unruly jungle, where its adversaries did not wait to win. election to try to delegitimize it and where there is no longer a common version of the truth.

After all, President Barack Obama once attempted to engage his opponents with facts and logic consistent with the traditions of the US system of government. That didn’t get him far with Republican opponents whose political existence aimed to thwart anything he proposed.

If things go wrong, Biden will face claims that the return of the administrative state has sparked disaster, which will fuel Trump if he runs again in 2024 and the candidates who hope he does. will not so that they have a chance.

Abroad, Biden must prove whether allied complacency, a methodical political process, and hard work at dialogue can compel a world of rising American rivals who have rocked the frayed world system in which he has come of age. The experience and expertise in foreign policy in successive administrations has never solved some of the thorniest problems – like North Korea’s nuclear quest.

One of the reasons Trump won four years ago is that many Americans believed that the globalized instincts of a generation of Washington elites had driven their jobs to go overseas and the wars in which their children were sent into battle.

“Biden’s cabinet picks have gone to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences, and will be the polite and orderly guardians of America’s decline,” Rubio tweeted. “I support American greatness. And I have no interest in returning to the ‘normal’ that has left us dependent on China.”

His tweet, which ignored the fact that many Trump officials have also visited Ivy League schools, summed up the duel between Biden’s traditional leadership in the White House and abroad, and the populism exploited by Trump.