Should we be happy that Biden won?

 Should we be happy that Biden won?

I asked myself this question often as I see the different response to the results. I am in no doubt that Trump is bad, and if we are comparing Biden to Trump -this is a very low par- then Biden is better. But will he be a better president? and whatever he represents is good for us? I mean by us: humans, citizens of the world, I am sure individual countries as India and Israel would prefer Trump, and so the Brixters and right wing parties in Europe, but collectively as humans of planet earth: is Biden good? Should we be happy? 

The American presidential election is a very important event in the world; the US is the leading super power today, militarily and economically. The past 4 years showed that the American president enjoys enormous powers while in office, and they can steer the country politics in any direction they wish to do. Therefore, who sits in the oval office will impact on all our lives, whether we like it or not.

There are many American policies that impact directly or indirectly on our lives across the world; policies towards fossil fuel, Paris accords, tax regulations, Chinese steel and 5g companies, and the list goes on. Of course add to that the invasion of Iraq or interference in South American elections, and all the geopolitical decisions that express the American imperialism.

I am sure many would have different views on the above examples, also might debate that the change in leadership in the US does not often change their policies especially foreign policy. Under Obama, shale gas fracking, deep sea oil wells, drone attacks, and much more took place that was not much different to Trump. Yes he was a great orator, but it should not make a real difference, if your father’s murderer brought flowers to the funeral that does not absolve them from the crime!

One of the things that Trump was very known for, aside from being racist xenophobe, is lying. Trump and his team have worked tirelessly to spread lies, encourage conspiracy theories and doubt all truths. In fact the word “post-truth” was word of the year in 2016 according to the OED. Mistakenly, many people blame Trump for this, forgetting that Trump is part of the Tea Party and Sarah Palin who have been paddling lies for the past ten years. Biden is no better, he supported the Iraq war, do you remember that? What was the truth about WMD? I could list endless examples of lying politicians, and trust me ( I might be lying) Trump is not an exception or an exaggeration (see Yuval Hariri 21 lessons for the 21st century, he had a chapter on misinformation). In fact, as a Labour and Corbyn supporter I can list few of the lies that Corbyn championed; like being pro EU! The problem Corbyn had was that he was not good at lying, which is what the British pubic prefer.

This narrows the choices/ options to compare a current Trump presidency to a future Biden presidency, but I think it narrows it to a very important one variable, a very big one.

“The clan are marching without hoodies”, this is how a commentator referred to the events in Charlottesville, which Trump defended them stating “there are fine people on both sides”. This is what Trump in the white house means, racists, neo Nazis, xenophobes had the president on their side. It is acceptable to be racist in public, because the president is.

Racism is not a Trump invention, nor is misogyny, islamophobia, xenophobia, or any hatred ideology, they always existed and will not go away anytime soon. However, it was not something of a debate, not a matter of opinion, we as society, imperfect as we are, we had almost a consensus on what defines racism or xenophobia, it was easy to call it out, hard to defend. During Trump era, these divisive ideologies became main stream, an opinion anyone could “proudly” have! This is the most dangerous place for us humanity to be, and it will be a huge task to move from this very dark place where we all live now.

If you want to cheer Biden winning- which I have- I think there is only one good reason which is the end of normalising racism, that’s all what Trump really was different to any other American president (recent). It is though very important one. I do not want to be very optimistic, because Bide is not really that good, and more importantly we are all still living in the hatred Trump helped to flourish, and we all have to change that.

Ahmad Baker