And insofar as he's not Trump, that he does accept, cherish and understand democratic norms, institutions and conventions in a way that Trump never could, Biden will make a real difference.
Some quick thoughts on what we just saw
Firstly hardly a unique insight but hard to overstimate the difference between the two last inaugurals. America has meandered sharply along its political arc.
Biden's rhetoric reached high. Every sentence seemed purposefully...
BREAK: Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 20, 2021
The Trump administration is over.
And insofar as he's not Trump, that he does accept, cherish and understand democratic norms, institutions and conventions in a way that Trump never could, Biden will make a real difference.
But that aura will disappear quickly. A governing project it will not make
Because the big overarching question for me, watching this, is which of those two inaugurals, Trump or Biden's, is going to seem unusual in the future.
Right now, we can't know the answer to that question, which man will be the blip.
After all a future Trump may be a tougher opponent. Because though he may have been a wannabe authortitarian, he wasn't especially skilful at it. Someone with more political skill, who has learnt some of the lessons Trump has inadvertently taught...
So though today feels like an ending, it might not be. It may just be an interregnum-a brief restoration. Ensuring that it's not is perhaps Biden's biggest task.
More from Lewis Goodall
More from Society
Krugman is, of course, right about this. BUT, note that universities can do a lot to revitalize declining and rural regions.
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote:
One thing I've been noticing about responses to today's column is that many people still don't get how strong the forces behind regional divergence are, and how hard to reverse 1/ https://t.co/Ft2aH1NcQt
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 20, 2018
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote: