After much anticipation and weeks of recounts and failed court cases by the Trump Administration, Democratic candidate Joseph Biden has been declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. With only a week remaining until Dec. 8, the safe harbor deadline, in which legal disputes to the presidential election must be resolved, multiple experts suggest a possible Trump re-election would be virtually impossible. Despite not officially being president until noon, Jan. 20, there are many things to hope and fear during Biden’s presidency.
The most important thing for Joe Biden to do if he is inaugurated is to repair the United States’s relationship with the rest of the world. While in office, current president Donald Trump has damaged international relationships with the country’s allies, especially during 2020. On May 29, 2020, President Trump announced that the United States would terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier in the year, the country was accused of stealing medical supplies from European countries, frustrating the likes of France and Germany. On Nov. 4, a day after the 2020 presidential election, the United States officially withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, a move that has been in play since 2017. It will be up to Biden to repair these relations and it already looks as if the process has already started. Biden has already announced that when he takes office, the U.S. would rejoin both the WHO and the Paris Climate Agreement. Many of the world’s leaders have already announced their support for the president-elect, showing that they’re willing to work with Joe Biden.
However, the same cannot be said about his own country. Many Republican leaders continue to support President Trump as he fights the results of the election. Voters continue to spread misconceptions about the election, refusing to accept that Trump has actually lost. As a candidate that was supposed to unite Democrats and Republicans, Joe Biden has an uphill battle to fight and it may be too much for him. The division between the Republican and Democrat party is greater than it has been recently, and both sides seem unwilling to work together as evident by stalling stimulus talks. A fully democratic government would not be ideal for democracy, but an uncooperative government means that nothing will get done. Biden wants to heal the division between Democrats and Republicans, but as for now I expect many will refuse to accept him as president.
Joe Biden’s stance on fracking has been mixed whenever the president-elect is asked about it. Fracking involves injecting fluids into the ground in order to expand cracks to extract oil and other natural gases. However, fracking poses potential threats to groundwater and ecosystems. Despite his eagerness to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, Biden has yet to take a solid stance against fracking. Biden has said that he would be opposed to any new fracking, but nothing yet in regard to current uses of fracking. The president elect’s middle ground stance on fracking may have helped him sway voters in Pennsylvania, which ultimately led to his victory in the state. But if Biden is not prepared to crackdown on fracking, the United States will have to continue and wait for major action on climate change.
President-elect Joseph Biden will have a lot on his table when he takes office in January. From tackling the COVID-19 pandemic to climate issues in the country, the 78-year-old will have to hit the ground running. However, this cannot be done without the cooperation of the country. While the rest of the world is ready to work with Biden, I feel we have a lot more to be resolved internally. Joe Biden’s presidency has yet to start, yet I already fear that very little will get accomplished.
