Can Joe Biden ensure America’s inevitable decline will be peaceful?

[Feng Leng]

Opinion | Can Biden ensure America’s inevitable decline will be peaceful?

Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era.

www.scmp.com

• Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era

Joe Biden has been elected 46th president of the United States. Donald Trump, his predecessor, has been impeached for a second time. Both events are good news.

Looking back at the four years of the Trump administration, one might wonder why a man who made an average of 20 false and misleading claims a day and eventually incited a mob to
storm the Capitol could have been elected as president of the most powerful country on Earth. Why was he supported by 74 million American voters in November’s presidential election?

Two years ago, I argued that the greatest challenge we face in the 21st century is not China’s rise, but America’s decline. China’s rise so far has been peaceful, but can the United States’ decline be equally peaceful?

If the Pentagon’s unabated military interventions after the Cold War have reduced the US’ national strength – a point few seem to disagree with now – they also show that the US’ decline, however gradual, is far from stable.

Then US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer declared that January 6, 2021, could be added “to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy”. It is more than that. The siege of the Capitol shows that when a democracy is in decline, it may become vitriolic and violent.

The bad news is Trumpism will not easily go away. Impeachment, without putting Trump on trial, does not prohibit him from running for president again in 2024. As the headline of an article in Time warned in November, “Even if Biden won, he would govern in Trump’s America”.

With the second-highest number of votes in US history going to Trump, the US seems bitterly and almost evenly split down the middle.

“History never repeats itself, but it rhymes,” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said. Biden might now find himself in a situation echoing that faced by Abraham Lincoln, American’s 16th president, after the civil war when the nation awaited healing.

But while Lincoln’s America needed nothing more than national reconciliation, which the US today needs too, Biden has to fight domestic enemies as well as take on challenges ranging from curbing the spread of the pandemic and saving the battered economy to restoring racial justice and faith in institutions all at once.

How long will that take? And how much can this 78-year-old “good man”, as former US president George W. Bush called him, accomplish? Even if he has a mission, as he should have, he can hardly be Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

He is more likely be the man who will lead Americans as they descend, however unwillingly, from the “city upon a hill”.

This is what he probably instinctively sensed when he said, “American history isn’t a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending. But we have the power to write the future we want for this nation.”

Overseas, his job seems easier, in part because the American people are weary of the
endless wars their soldiers have been fighting and their duty as the world’s policeman
in faraway places. The pandemic, coupled with the violence triggered by George Floyd’s death and the riot at the Capitol, will increase Americans’ worries about the future.

According to a national survey conducted by the Upshot and Siena College last year, Americans aren’t so much fretting about themselves as they are anxious about the country. A retreat to isolationism looks inevitable.


The more blood is spilled in America itself, the less America will spill the blood of other countries.

 

[vi-va]

Of course not. If sleepy Joe had a solution, why Biden didn't tell Obama and get Trump elected?
Joe is all talk, just like Obama.

 

[Taimoor Khan]

Soviets went down relatively peacefully, with America, everyone needs to be on guard.

 

[Shabi1]

US will have setbacks but as long as Dollar is the international currency and they are allowed to continue to print it without putting in collateral they will be relevant. Set backs yes but not a decline like the soviets.

Once Covid vaccine gets widespread things will normalize, not like before but a bit more realistically now on. Can't boost economy through wars anymore the world has learned and neither can boycott China, that approach hadnt worked with Trump. Need to think something new.

 

[Surya 1]

Opinion | Can Biden ensure America’s inevitable decline will be peaceful?

Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era.

www.scmp.com

• Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era

Joe Biden has been elected 46th president of the United States. Donald Trump, his predecessor, has been impeached for a second time. Both events are good news.

Looking back at the four years of the Trump administration, one might wonder why a man who made an average of 20 false and misleading claims a day and eventually incited a mob to
storm the Capitol could have been elected as president of the most powerful country on Earth. Why was he supported by 74 million American voters in November’s presidential election?

Two years ago, I argued that the greatest challenge we face in the 21st century is not China’s rise, but America’s decline. China’s rise so far has been peaceful, but can the United States’ decline be equally peaceful?

If the Pentagon’s unabated military interventions after the Cold War have reduced the US’ national strength – a point few seem to disagree with now – they also show that the US’ decline, however gradual, is far from stable.

Then US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer declared that January 6, 2021, could be added “to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy”. It is more than that. The siege of the Capitol shows that when a democracy is in decline, it may become vitriolic and violent.

The bad news is Trumpism will not easily go away. Impeachment, without putting Trump on trial, does not prohibit him from running for president again in 2024. As the headline of an article in Time warned in November, “Even if Biden won, he would govern in Trump’s America”.

With the second-highest number of votes in US history going to Trump, the US seems bitterly and almost evenly split down the middle.

“History never repeats itself, but it rhymes,” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said. Biden might now find himself in a situation echoing that faced by Abraham Lincoln, American’s 16th president, after the civil war when the nation awaited healing.

But while Lincoln’s America needed nothing more than national reconciliation, which the US today needs too, Biden has to fight domestic enemies as well as take on challenges ranging from curbing the spread of the pandemic and saving the battered economy to restoring racial justice and faith in institutions all at once.

How long will that take? And how much can this 78-year-old “good man”, as former US president George W. Bush called him, accomplish? Even if he has a mission, as he should have, he can hardly be Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

He is more likely be the man who will lead Americans as they descend, however unwillingly, from the “city upon a hill”.

This is what he probably instinctively sensed when he said, “American history isn’t a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending. But we have the power to write the future we want for this nation.”

Overseas, his job seems easier, in part because the American people are weary of the
endless wars their soldiers have been fighting and their duty as the world’s policeman
in faraway places. The pandemic, coupled with the violence triggered by George Floyd’s death and the riot at the Capitol, will increase Americans’ worries about the future.

According to a national survey conducted by the Upshot and Siena College last year, Americans aren’t so much fretting about themselves as they are anxious about the country. A retreat to isolationism looks inevitable.


The more blood is spilled in America itself, the less America will spill the blood of other countries.

I doubt that. However, Xi can ensure Peaceful downfall of China as he is a very powerful dictator.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Opinion | Can Biden ensure America’s inevitable decline will be peaceful?

Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era.

www.scmp.com

• Faced with a divided nation, a pandemic raging out of control, a battered economy and a country whose global standing has been on the wane for years, the best Biden may be able to do is ensure stability in the new era

Joe Biden has been elected 46th president of the United States. Donald Trump, his predecessor, has been impeached for a second time. Both events are good news.

Looking back at the four years of the Trump administration, one might wonder why a man who made an average of 20 false and misleading claims a day and eventually incited a mob to
storm the Capitol could have been elected as president of the most powerful country on Earth. Why was he supported by 74 million American voters in November’s presidential election?

Two years ago, I argued that the greatest challenge we face in the 21st century is not China’s rise, but America’s decline. China’s rise so far has been peaceful, but can the United States’ decline be equally peaceful?

If the Pentagon’s unabated military interventions after the Cold War have reduced the US’ national strength – a point few seem to disagree with now – they also show that the US’ decline, however gradual, is far from stable.

Then US Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer declared that January 6, 2021, could be added “to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy”. It is more than that. The siege of the Capitol shows that when a democracy is in decline, it may become vitriolic and violent.

The bad news is Trumpism will not easily go away. Impeachment, without putting Trump on trial, does not prohibit him from running for president again in 2024. As the headline of an article in Time warned in November, “Even if Biden won, he would govern in Trump’s America”.

With the second-highest number of votes in US history going to Trump, the US seems bitterly and almost evenly split down the middle.

“History never repeats itself, but it rhymes,” as Mark Twain is often reputed to have said. Biden might now find himself in a situation echoing that faced by Abraham Lincoln, American’s 16th president, after the civil war when the nation awaited healing.

But while Lincoln’s America needed nothing more than national reconciliation, which the US today needs too, Biden has to fight domestic enemies as well as take on challenges ranging from curbing the spread of the pandemic and saving the battered economy to restoring racial justice and faith in institutions all at once.

How long will that take? And how much can this 78-year-old “good man”, as former US president George W. Bush called him, accomplish? Even if he has a mission, as he should have, he can hardly be Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

He is more likely be the man who will lead Americans as they descend, however unwillingly, from the “city upon a hill”.

This is what he probably instinctively sensed when he said, “American history isn’t a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending. But we have the power to write the future we want for this nation.”

Overseas, his job seems easier, in part because the American people are weary of the
endless wars their soldiers have been fighting and their duty as the world’s policeman
in faraway places. The pandemic, coupled with the violence triggered by George Floyd’s death and the riot at the Capitol, will increase Americans’ worries about the future.

According to a national survey conducted by the Upshot and Siena College last year, Americans aren’t so much fretting about themselves as they are anxious about the country. A retreat to isolationism looks inevitable.


The more blood is spilled in America itself, the less America will spill the blood of other countries.

Joe is too old for that. Work in progress in background by way younger and energetic dudes.

 

[GumNaam]

I doubt that. However, Xi can ensure Peaceful downfall of China as he is a very powerful dictator.

right now, Xi is ensuring a not so peaceful downfall of india!

 

[Surya 1]

right now, Xi is ensuring a not so peaceful downfall of india!

 

[GumNaam]

View attachment 709364

are you finger masturbating your arse to pictures of big, black & erect replicas of a certain "organs" again? y' know which organ I'm talkin' about right? the one where indian males are found severely lacking in size while indian women are found severely craving like vp kamala harris's mother devi for example?

 

[Cliftonite]

Lol what a joke.

SCMP was among the high standard media houses in Asia, versed in the British BBC school of journalism. Seems like CCP has got hold of it after the Hong Kong repeal.

 

[GumNaam]

Lol what a joke.

SCMP was among the high standard media houses in Asia, versed in the British BBC school of journalism. Seems like CCP has got hold of it after the Hong Kong repeal.

you don't live here, you perhaps haven't even been to the u.s. I've been living here for more than half of my life. I've seen FIRST HAND how deep the hatred and the divide between the conservative right and the liberal left has become. they are both increasingly becoming unforgiving towards each other. the humiliation of trump has only deepened that hatred and divide, the right wing masses (what we call the maga crowd) is geniunely convinced that the election was indeed stolen and rigged, their racist boy was engineered to be thrown out and will now be prosecuted and thrown in jail for what they believe are cooked up allegations. the militant left will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the right wing people indeed feel humiliated and that humiliation is rubbed into their faces on live television. and mind you, the population, both right and left, are HEAVILY armed here. even the u.s. military won't be able to stop the clash, heck...the u.s. military itself will become divided between the right and the left. it is common to see a gay (left winger) commissioned officer in command of a bunch of good ol' boys (right wingers) and vice versa. even the military discipline will fall apart when the officers and subordinates turn their guns on each other. writing on the wall.

 

[Cliftonite]

you don't live here, you perhaps haven't even been to the u.s. I've been living here for more than half of my life. I've seen FIRST HAND how deep the hatred and the divide between the conservative right and the liberal left has become. they are both increasingly becoming unforgiving towards each other. the humiliation of trump has only deepened that hatred and divide, the right wing masses (what we call the maga crowd) is geniunely convinced that the election was indeed stolen and rigged, their racist boy was engineered to be thrown out and will now be prosecuted and thrown in jail for what they believe are cooked up allegations. the militant left will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the right wing people indeed feel humiliated and that humiliation is rubbed into their faces on live television. and mind you, the population, both right and left, are HEAVILY armed here. even the u.s. military won't be able to stop the clash, heck...the u.s. military itself will become divided between the right and the left. it is common to see a gay (left winger) commissioned officer in command of a bunch of good ol' boys (right wingers) and vice versa. even the military discipline will fall apart when the officers and subordinates turn their guns on each other. writing on the wall.

It's a rehash of the Civil War. The Trump boys playing the role of the Confederates.

But I doubt things will go so bad. The American Southwest is Latino and doesn't give two shits about Trump. The blacks are anti Trump as well. The pro Trump crowd is only the Bible Belt folks. Hopefully Biden will give them some carrot and calm them down.

The Trump phenomenon has grown in large part because of the uncontrolled left policies. The BLM riots, the demonization of white people, the pro socialist rhetoric. Trump is a symbol of the dying cries of America's white nationalists as they are finally pushed into irrelevancy.

 

[GumNaam]

It's a rehash of the Civil War. The Trump boys playing the role of the Confederates.

But I doubt things will go so bad. The American Southwest is Latino and doesn't give two shits about Trump. The blacks are anti Trump as well. The pro Trump crowd is only the Bible Belt folks. Hopefully Biden will give them some carrot and calm them down.

The Trump phenomenon has grown in large part because of the uncontrolled left policies. The BLM riots, the demonization of white people, the pro socialist rhetoric. Trump is a symbol of the dying cries of America's white nationalists as they are finally pushed into irrelevancy.

negative. you seem to be under the impression that the blue states where biden won are ALL liberals with a very tiny conservative "good ol' boy" population. that's wrong. its not tiny. Like the west coast for example (where I live), people who voted for trump were anywhere from 30% to 49%. that's a gigantic minority in those states. and you can see the damage on the streets...blacks, latinos & the lbgtq people are making sure that anyone who even remotely looks like a good ol' boy gets it rubbed in their faces that their boy lost! not pretty picture. the anger is growing and there are already rumours that some "bible belt" states are thinking about giving the american federation the finger and declare independence.

 

[Cliftonite]

negative. you seem to be under the impression that the blue states where biden won are ALL liberals with a very tiny conservative "good ol' boy" population. that's wrong. its not tiny. Like the west coast for example (where I live), people who voted for trump were anywhere from 30% to 49%. that's a gigantic minority in those states. and you can see the damage on the streets...blacks, latinos & the lbgtq people are making sure that anyone who even remotely looks like a good ol' boy gets it rubbed in their faces that their boy lost! not pretty picture. the anger is growing and there are already rumours that some "bible belt" states are thinking about giving the american federation the finger and declare independence.

Yeaaaaah. That's not going to happen. Seeing America's demise is something many Pakistanis (rather many Muslims) secretly wish for. But hold back on the fantasies.

That's not happening. This is nothing. The 60s-70s anti Vietnam war protests and the Civil rights riots were much worse. The redneck Bible Belt has always been crazy. These are just their final pangs of frustration as they become irrelevant. The centrists aren't crazy enough to come out on the streets for Trump.

 

[GumNaam]

Yeaaaaah. That's not going to happen. Seeing America's demise is something many Pakistanis (rather many Muslims) secretly wish for. But hold back on the fantasies.

That's not happening. This is nothing. The 60s-70s anti Vietnam war protests and the Civil rights riots were much worse. The redneck Bible Belt has always been crazy. These are just their final pangs of frustration as they become irrelevant. The centrists aren't crazy enough to come out on the streets for Trump.

ok I still don't think you get it. you've missed the fact that I am telling you the ground realities that I've observed first hand...by like, 10 miles!!!