Will Joe Biden’s victory resuscitate liberalism?

Remaking liberalism that has bipartisan support in the US and travels abroad as the towering symbol of American principles will be a key task for him

What America thinks today, the world thinks tomorrow. While the cachet of the United States as an international trendsetter may not be what it was at the turn of the century and during the heyday of globalisation, even today, decisions in the Oval Office usually have a ripple effect across the world.

With the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, a new era is about to begin in America. The past four years, under President Donald Trump, have not only eroded the foundations of American democracy but severely undermined the special standing liberalism enjoys as an aspect of democracy in many parts of the world. As the 46th President of the United States, Biden, by all means a pragmatic liberal, must not only restore liberalism at the heart of the American polity but also reorient it for contemporary challenges.

The new normal under Biden

He may be entering the White House having received the most presidential votes in history, but Biden will have his work cut out in trying to undo the effects of his predecessor. Some of the steps in the Biden recovery plan will be predictable and reasonably straightforward – rejoining the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization (WHO), regaining American primacy in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and bolstering US-European ties, perhaps even renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal put in place by Barack Obama.

But other moves seem much trickier. Healing a divided country where polarisation appears to be on the verge of ethnic parochialism resembling the situation in Bosnia and Kosovo (according to a recent paper on US tribalism by Cambridge University), dealing with the devastating impact of Covid-19, rebooting an economy in the midst of the worst depression since the 1930s, and reconfiguring America’s status as the numero uno in an increasingly multipolar world will not be easy. After all, Trump may soon be gone, but as evidenced in the election results, Trumpism will be lurking for a while.

A Biden presidency has long been touted as a return to normal without the mercurial twists and turns of a president constantly triggered on Twitter. But a mere reinstatement of status quo ante is not only undesirable but also impossible. Biden cannot simply dial back the clock to the Obama years; he must create his own paradigm, one founded in the remaking of the liberalism that has enjoyed the bipartisan endorsement of all American presidents since the Second World War, all except the last one.

A recalibrated liberalism

Liberalism, in the context of American polemic, is often taken to mean the philosophical underpinnings of a welfare state, the kind epitomised by the manifestos of social democrat Bernie Sanders. But viewed in a global context, liberalism primarily espouses freedom of three kinds – freedom of trade, freedom of movement, and freedom of thought and ideas. In American politics, this has been translated (at the best of times) into building bridges between warring camps at home and the championing of the vulnerable abroad.

But the glorious liberalism at the heart of a vibrant America for decades has plunged into chaos since 2016, replaced by an ethno-nationalist version of populist politics that advocates for hostility towards immigrants, the resurgence of economic protectionism, and the radicalisation of culture wars, so as to drive a wedge between its supporters and those the populists envision as their enemies.

Biden, who has reassured the electorate that he will govern as president for “all Americans”, has harnessed a reputation as a moderate centrist, someone with progressive proclivities, but without contempt for conservatives. This perception will be crucial for Biden to enlarge the appeal of his party as well as of his presidency.

Over the last decade, the Democrats have ceded a lot of political ground by focusing disproportionately on identity politics and the supposed empowerment of America’s sizable minorities. This, coupled with their obsession with developing a globalised, meritocratic social order, has led them to neglect the needs of working-class whites and evangelicals, as documented excellently in Michael Sandel’s book, The Tyranny of Merit.

Biden, while continuing to uphold the interest and integrity of minorities, will have to make liberalism relatable to large sections of America’s white majority, including Trump admirers whom Hillary Clinton had disparaged as a “basket of deplorables”.

The liberalism that takes shape under Biden will have to rise above the echo chambers of social media to advocate empathy, sometimes even compromise, with opponents, besides restoring competence in political policy and basic decency in political rhetoric.

On the international scene, America cannot be as spineless in calling out violations of human rights as it has been under Trump with reference to the multiple crises in Belarus, Lebanon, Venezuela, among others.

This does not mean that Biden’s America should take upon itself the role of military messiah and kick-start new interventions along the lines of Iraq and Afghanistan from earlier on in the century. Instead, it means that under Biden, America should speak up against the atrocities in Kashmir, the persecution of Uighur Muslims in China, the humanitarian travesty in Yemen, to name a few. American condemnation, by way of words or sanctions or a scuppering of bilateral ties, still holds more heft than similar actions by any other power in the world.

Soothe and douse

As President, Biden, unlike Trump, is not coming to shake things up. He is coming to soothe an all-too shaken country, whose blunders have caused tremors around the world. The fabric of American values has been set aflame all too often in the recent past, and the wounds are clear to see upon the edifice of liberalism.

Biden’s most crucial task, and one he seems to recognise, is to articulate a renewed vision of liberalism that does not believe in fighting fire with fire, but in deploying some much-needed water instead.

(Priyam Marik is a freelance journalist writing on politics, culture and sport)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.