Though expectations from him are high, Joe Biden must tread cautiously to avoid aggravating already existing social divisions.
In a turbulent America characterized by racial conflict and a raging pandemic, Joseph R. “Joe” Biden, Jr. of Delaware has created history. He became the second Roman Catholic to be elected President of the United States. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, 35th President of the United States, was the first. Biden, though, is of mixed Irish descent, unlike JFK, who was pure Irish. Interestingly, Biden, who had entered the United States Senate in 1973, had spent his entire career in the upper chamber as a close colleague of JFK’s youngest brother, Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy (D-MA). In fact, Biden was seen giving Ted a standing ovation, as the “Lion of the Senate” delivered his last convention speech at the Democratic National Convention that nominated Barack Obama for President in 2008.
Unlike in 1960, no one in America made Biden’s religion an issue during the Presidential campaign. Has America changed fundamentally in 60 years? Seems like. Today, it is very difficult to sway American voters just by talking about the religion of the Presidential candidate. 2020 is not 1960. So, unlike JFK in 1960, Joe Biden did not have to convince Protestants and the media that he would not be guided by the Pope in discharging his duties if elected President.
But then, Catholics are now the largest Christian denomination in Protestant America. Not because of the Irish and the Italians, but due to the large presence of Hispanics, who are overwhelmingly Catholic. Though Catholics still raise eyebrows among evangelicals, they had managed to get acceptance in mainstream Protestant society, just the way that Jews did. American nativists’ opposition to Hispanic immigration and immigrants is not due to the latter’s religion, but more because of their inability and unwillingness to learn English.
But then, the Democratic Party has made clear in its 2020 platform that it intended to welcome to America immigrants from around the world through a “humanitarian” immigration policy. Not only is Joe Biden expected to uphold such policy, immigration activists want him to act on it straightaway. Much to the chagrin of nativists and glee of immigration supporters, he has already declared his intention to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants. No more travel bans. No more walls on the Mexican border. America’s doors are to be opened as never before. Something that many Americans are not going to take kindly to.
It is from these Americans—who form a sizeable part of the population—that Donald Trump draws his support and his sustenance. He had managed to bring the number of undocumented immigrants to 10.5 million from the 11.2 million that Obama left him. But then it is still a staggering number. The Democratic party’s willingness to fast-track the process of granting citizenship to this large number of illegals, instead of asking them to stand in the line as Barack Obama did or evicting them as both Obama and Trump had done, is certain to create a lot of discontent in American society.
Anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States is high, and not because President Trump had whipped them up for electoral benefit. Worse, white supremacists no longer target only blacks: they have all non-white immigrants on their radar. With a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, Joe Biden may end up creating fresh divisions in American society if he is not careful. If Lyndon Baines Johnson had opened the doors of America to the world with his Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), any attempt by the new President to bring in legislation in order to make easy the process of becoming American for illegal aliens may amount to knocking down those doors altogether.
Regardless of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, there is a lot of fear and anger among African-Americans. Fear, because white supremacists are again making their presence felt in American politics. Talks of a fresh Southern resurgence has got blacks worried. Their attempts to get rid of Confederate symbols have met with limited success. And anger, because the Trump administration is perceived by blacks as having done precious little to protect black lives and property despite its repeated claims of having brought down black joblessness significantly.
Biden won 87% of the black vote in the Presidential election last November, breaking the record of Bill Clinton, who had managed 83% and 84% in 1992 and 1996, respectively. Accordingly, Biden has again made history: no white Presidential candidate in the United States had won such a massive percentage of black votes. Bill Clinton was labelled as the “first black President” by the American media. Using that criterion, Biden is the third. But then, expectations of blacks from him are as high as their votes.
Blacks had voted for Biden in large numbers in the Democratic primaries as well. They are also supposed to have influenced his choice of Vice-Presidential running mate: the part-Jamaican, part-Indian junior senator from California, Kamala Harris. And here lies the problem. At 78, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of Delaware is the oldest elected President in American history. The irony of white supremacists is that they have to pray for the well-being of Joe Biden now on a daily basis, lest something happened to him and Harris became President. A coloured woman in the White House is not something many Americans are looking forward to in the near future.
Even if the oldest elected President is not succeeded by a coloured woman in office, he may have to encounter enormous resistance if he chose to act on each and every promise that his party has made in 2020. Not only illegal immigrants and blacks, but Hispanics, labour, women, and the LGBTQ+ community expect Biden to deliver America—if not the world—to them. Though supporters of President Trump may not repeat the mayhem they created on Capitol Hill recently, their influence in American politics is far from over. Nativism and populism, the twin pillars of Trump’s politics, have succeeded as never before. And that is something that will keep divisions in American society alive. Joe Biden really has his hands full.
Dr Saumyajit Ray is Assistant Professor in United States Studies, CCUS & LAS, SIS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.