President Biden is restoring humanity to the Presidency. Mr. Biden has done away with the offensive Muslim ban, realizing that they are not the enemy. The few radicals who attacked the Twin Towers and the hundreds of extremists who attacked the Capitol are the enemy, not their religion, whether Muslim or Christian.
Mr. Biden has also established a task force to reunite families separated at the border by the previous administration. These migrants and asylum seekers are not the enemy. I can think of nothing more abhorrent than terrorizing traumatized people as a policy, a failed policy at that. The family separation policy of the previous administration was exactly that; terrorizing traumatized people.
Mr. Biden has also directed federal agencies to conduct audits towards advancing racial equity. Roger Cohen wrote (NYT 11/15/20): “Racism is a close cousin to nationalism, as America has been reminded. They both depend on scapegoating or persecuting ‘the other.’” The enemy is institutional and systemic racism, not the color of one’s skin or political beliefs.
Mr. Biden has confronted the economic disaster with the American Relief Plan and the Covid-19 disaster with shots in the arms of 200 million citizens. He knows that the enemy is poverty and disease, not the silliness of culture wars like blue states vs. red states or face masks.
Mr. Biden has also neutralized the toxic anger-based, fact-free, and reality-free politics of the previous administration. In remembering and honoring those who died in the past year from Covid-19, Mr. Biden recognized the pain and grief of those left behind. In addressing that grief, Mr. Biden stated: “We know what to do… tell the truth.” As Mr. Cohen wrote in the NYT: “On lies is tyranny built.”
Mr. Biden is restoring trust in government, faith in institutions, and humanity to the Presidency. Not bad for the first 100 days.
