Before that day, Chaos had reigned for four years. Covid-19 was an unchecked epidemic, the American economy was in shambles, as was the western alliance of the US and Europe. Remember?
We remember the world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Iraq wars and Afghanistan. We remember the history of the Civil War, in which more Americans died than in all of those wars put together. We do not remember the year of Covid, in which more Americans died than in the Civil War, which took four years. Maybe the trauma is too fresh, maybe we're snowed under with so-called information. But, you know, it happened.
Under pressure, President Chaos did allow government financing of a crash program to develop a vaccine, though he later repudiated it. He advised American to drink bleach instead.
Then came the elections of 2020. Chaos could not abide the outcome, and fomented chaotic violence that came to a head on January 6, 2021, with the trashing of the US Capitol, endangering the lives of the country's highest legislative officials.
So for the Inauguration in 2020, there was no parade, just as there had been no rallies during the campaign, because of the danger of Covid infection. For the Inauguration itself, the principals (as in the photo above) wore protective masks.
Because of January 6, there were also at least 20,000 National Guard troops in Washington, probably more. They were no longer sleeping on the floors of the Capitol building to protect it; they were guarding the Inaugural against the forces of Chaos.
But on January 20, 2021, after Joseph R. Biden was sworn in as President, and Kamala Harris as Vice-President, the following happened:
The U.S. rejoined the Paris Accords, the global effort to address the global climate crisis.
The U.S. rejoined the WHO in a global effort to address the global covid crisis.
Laws to prevent evictions and to delay student loan payments during the covid crisis were extended.
The Keystone pipeline permits were withdrawn, among other reversals of anti-environment policies and regulations, including a moratorium on fossil fuel leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Masks and social distancing on federal property, by federal employees, and on airplanes and other interstate travel were mandated by federal law.
DACA was bolstered. The “Muslim ban” on travel was ended. Diversity training returned, anti-discrimination policies in the federal government were strengthened, and the notorious far right 1776 Commission disbanded.
All of the Chaos cabinet had resigned, and several of the worst sub-cabinet officials were fired, including the guy who turned the Voice of America into a MAGA shill factory. Competent and experienced career public servants were appointed to run the various departments until cabinet officers were confirmed.
Joe Biden took over the Oval Office, where he pointedly installed a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt directly across the room from his desk.
Because Americans had also elected a Democratic majority House of Representatives and (with the election of the first black Senator and first Jewish Senator in Georgia history) a Democratic majority in the US Senate, President Biden was able to enact the American Rescue Plan, which funded the initial distribution of Covid vaccine and additional measures to combat Covid as well as measures to re-start the US economy, especially with the first of several direct payments to citizens, known as "stimulus checks."
These payments worked better than anyone had even hoped. With further legislation and executive efforts over the next four years, and despite a nasty round of inflation caused chiefly by supply chain issues and the usual opportunistic greed, the Biden administration fostered an American economy which last week the Economist magazine called "the envy of the world," with the lowest unemployment, lower inflation, and lower interest rates in years, along with the highest stock market closings in history.
Also last week, the Wall Street Journal published the results of an annual survey of economists, in which a majority (often a large majority) forecast a better economy, lower inflation, higher employment, more American manufacturing and higher incomes under a Harris administration than under a return to Chaos.
The western alliance is healthy again, and stands together defending the sovereign nation of Ukraine against Russian invasion. Bob Woodward's new book credits Biden and his cabinet and other officials with the most competent handling of world affairs he's seen, and counsels that Chaos was the worst President in history--far worse than Nixon--and is not fit to take power again.
Those are today's judgments. But try priming your memory of what is was like long ago--from 2017 to 2021--along with the growing evidence of how much worse it would be if Chaos reigns again.
Voting is beginning.
