I agree. With so many deaths from COVID and so many people suffering, infected, out of work, out of insurance, it’s not the time for a showy celebration.
More like the family and friends gathering in the ICU waiting room when you get the news that the patient is going to live. Some prayers of gratitude, a few tears of joy, stop at a coffee shop for take-out hamburgers, then home to rest and reflect. Back to work the next day, renewed and with hope.
I wish Biden would delegate a team right away to reunite the 500+ children and parents who were separated at the border, trashed, discarded, and forgotten by the Republican administration. There’s some major humanitarian intervention that needs to happen immediately. Hell, let’s bring in UNICEF, Amnesty International, or the ICRC-- they’re refugee experts. The way the Republican administration has dealt with these people is a national disgrace. Now we can work on fixing it. This crisis doesn’t need to move to center stage-- goodness knows, there are plenty of things (COVID, for instance) vying for that place… 
) but the Democrats must bring our values to bear on this atrocity and correct it as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
I’m all for restoring dignity to the White House and all that, but Biden is going to take office in the midst of a pandemic spike (if you’ll excuse the expression) like we’ve never seen. And due to the inertia of the previous administration’s mishandling, there won’t be much the federal government (even if united) will be able to do to slow it down.
But there will be one new variable in the equation: a vaccine. There will be one or more approved, but distributing them will be an unprecedented logistical challenge. For example, one supply chain expert I spoke to told me the US doesn’t even have the cargo capacity for a fraction of the dry ice that will be needed to preserve the dosages.
Building and executing a federally directed plan to distribute the vaccines will be the Normandy invasion of defeating COVID, and if BIden’s team can do that it could be the victory that lets him advance on all the other fronts we’d love to see him win.
Deal with COVID-19 as well as possible.
Ensure all citizens are treated equally.
Get us back on a polite but strong standing with world leaders.
Keep the American economy strong while working on International trade that benefits both countries.
Nationalized healthcare that isn’t just a handout to insurance companies. Medicare for all probably.
Protect our Constitutional rights, including but not limited to the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th amendments that are regularly under attack. I know he’s already said he wants to infringe on the 2nd though.
I know this isn’t the place to discuss this, but the modern interpretation of the 2nd amendment goes waaaaay past what the FF had in mind. They meant states could have local armed militias. It never was intended to mean that individual citizens could have garages full of high-tech weapons containing more hellish firepower than some countries. They could not imagine how the modern USA would warp and twist this intention.
Shutting the door to that rabbit hole.
Modhat: This is not the place to discuss the 2nd amendment. So please don’t.
That goes for everyone.
Yeah. I figured. Sorry.
I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn’t see red and blue states, but a United States.
I hope Biden’s statement about bringing people together is genuinely sincere.
Bipartisanship legislation on common issues could be Biden’s greatest legacy.
It won’t be easy. IMHO this isn’t the time to pursue an ambitious legislative agenda. Focus on smaller issues with potential support from both parties.
We’ll find out in 2021 what Biden can do.
I want to see him work to unify the country around its democratic institutions. In order to do that he has to make the Democratic party more successful. Without two successful parties, democracy doesn’t stand. In fact I don’t know how to define a democracy without at least 2 strong parties. Where that puts Japan I don’t quite know…
Obviously strengthening the Democratic party involves outcompeting the Republican party which involves making committed Republicans unhappy. That is something the Republicans have long understood-one can’t have a strong party without pissing off the committed voters in the other party. That is OK, but each party must learn to appeal to the less committed members of the other party. Trump did that very well in 2016 and only slightly less well in 2020. Biden squeaked out a win by winning back a bunch of the Democratic voters Trump had previously pulled away.
In the near term, a national mask mandate with substantial and enforced penalties so we have some hope of controlling a pandemic that is almost certainly going to be much more out of control after the holidays. And just some sort of actual plan to address the pandemic instead of shrugging and saying we’re not going to control it.
At this point, I’m willing to settle for “exists”.
It should be state laws for masks, showing that the states have laws and responsibilites that are not mandated by the Feds.
That should be importnat to Biden’s agenda.
There are a bunch of red necks in America. I can’t be more delicate or politically correct than that. A lot of them live around me in my beloved Arkansas.
The Biden manifesto correctly identifies Russia as a multi-dimensional threat to the US - while correct, this threat is not nearly as potent as the one posed by China. With its economic muscle and avowed opposition to the US, it is China that should occupy the minds of those who want to keep US dominance intact for the coming generations. However Biden advocates a softer approach to the Chinese challenge while calling for a harder stance on Russia - he’s got this one seriously wrong.
I also hope he will bring back US troops from Afghanistan, make a viable deal with the Taliban, and most importantly keep up the pressure on Pakistan. The latter is critical, and something Trump got admirably correct. Pakistan is a terrorist sinkhole. It has consumed billions in US funds while sending back body bags. Remember the Taliban’s HQ is located in Quetta, Peshawar, Pakistan (called Quetta Shura).
Trump did get certain his foreign policy largely correct - unfortunately this gets overlooked in the overall mess his administration made elsewhere. I hope Biden develops a realistic foreign policy - one that does not use “human rights and democracy” as sticks to beat other nations with.
Asking for too much, I am.
Or too little. I don’t want Biden to abandon “human rights and democracy,” despite our recent failures in those departments.
Also, I’m less concerned about keeping “U.S. dominance intact for the coming generations.” I don’t think we handled our dominance that well. Let’s try to be more like Canada.
He said he’d lower my taxes.
The lowered tax rate for you and me expires in a few years. The one for wealthy guys does not expire.
Hopefully the failed Biden Administration won’t open the door to complete Republican control of Congress after the 2022 elections.