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ANGELA WEISS via Getty Images
“Dad, make me a promise …”. Five years after the death of his son Beau, killed by a brain tumor, that promise Joe Biden can say he has kept. He reacted to pain, climbed the mountain, ventured into the great challenge of mending the soul of America. That immense pain, already known with the loss of his wife and daughter in a car accident in ’72, not only did not break him, but was the engine to make their dream come true: to run for president and win, in a time when the pandemic grief devastated the lives of more than two million Americans.
America, it is an honor that I have been chosen to lead our great country.
The work ahead will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a president for all Americans, whether they vote for me or not.
I will keep the faith you have placed in me. pic.twitter.com/moA9qhmjn8
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 7, 2020
Biden’s is a historic victory, from all points of view. The “red mirage” that occurred in several key states due to the boom in early voting; Donald Trump’s always so inflammatory words and the unknowns about his next moves; the protests that for days have taken the sleep of millions of Americans: all of these are signs of a country torn apart as never before. Dismissing Trump as “the crazy uncle” now blinded by anger cannot be the solution: it would mean further alienating the possibility of living with those who until now have adhered to what Trumpism represents. Those who recognize themselves in Trump feel, and are perceived, as bearers of an irreconcilable worldview compared to those on the other side. The evolution of this confrontation will also depend on how the Republican Party and the most influential conservative media behave, but it is clear that the bulk of the responsibility falls on the already hunched shoulders of Joe Biden, 77, the oldest president in America. . called to lead a nation shattered to its foundations.
“None of us are naïve,” the Democrat declared Wednesday afternoon, as confidence gradually turned to awareness of having (almost) done it. “We know that we have divisive views on different issues, but we have to move on, we have to stop treating our rivals as enemies. What unites us is stronger than what divides us ”. Along with him the woman he elected as his deputy, Kamala Harris, the first woman in a presidential candidacy, rigorous these days both in her poise and in reiterating that “every vote must be counted.”
In the end, the veteran of American politics, symbol of an establishment that in recent years has failed to reflect on its own limits and mistakes, managed to win even better than one might expect (if overtaking was somehow expected in Pennsylvania , Georgia’s was unexpected). The pandemic has likely increased his chances, allowing him to play an electoral campaign on defense: instead of scoring, he has pledged not to score an own goal, managing the advantage and accepting the narrative of a weak candidacy from the beginning. In elementary school, as well as in the test of television debate, he did not shine for particular performances: his mission was rather to do no harm, given his nature as a gaffer. There were a few small drops in style, like looking at the clock during debate or calling the president a clown, but playing like a filmmaker, using the distance to your advantage, paid off.
An immense challenge opens before him: to lead a country that is already in tension in a transition with uncertain contours. But whoever voted for him, which made him break the record set by Barack Obama in 2008, knows that he can count on political experience made of granite but also on empathy. On the one hand, in fact, there are the 36 years he spent as a senator from Delaware, plus 8 years as vice president alongside Obama. On the other, there is his personal history, the pains, the breaks, the restarts. A path recounted in a book published in 2017 of which today’s story seems the natural epilogue: “Dad, make me a promise: a year of hope, suffering and determination” (translated into Italy by Francesco Costa for NR editions).
In addition to all the limitations listed above, in fact, Biden also succeeded because he displayed qualities not reached in Donald Trump: kindness, empathy, ability to react to adversity, reasonableness, aversion to drama, just to name a few. Regarding the pandemic, he took a very different approach than the president. He kept the level of attention high, always wore a mask, urged the public to listen to the scientists avoiding large demonstrations and events in the presence. His team stopped knocking on doors for most of the election campaign, and only started again at the end. He showed empathy for the people who had fought the coronavirus, an aspect pointed out some time ago in a comment by Judith Graham: the mourning pandemic will last longer than the Covid-19 pandemic, and no one is prepared for it. And again: “Leading a nation through a pandemic means treating grief with the respect and reverence it deserves.”
With a denial president, elected by 48% of the voters anyway, more than 6 million people more than four years ago, Biden did not hesitate to position himself next to science but also to human vulnerability, including emotions like the pain and fear (in its various forms, including economic). His family history forced him to know closely what it means to lose what is most dear to you in the world. In the book, Biden recounts in vivid and heartbreaking detail how his life has changed from the time his eldest son Beau, a rising star in the Democratic Party, was diagnosed with brain cancer, until his death less than two years later. Page after page, Biden lays bare his emotions and vulnerability on a path of pain with which he is very familiar: It was in 1972 that his young wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. Beau and Hunter, 3 and 2 at the time, were in the back seat – they survived but were hospitalized for days.
Those tests made him more empathetic, helping people feel connected to him. In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, there was no rowdy crowd in a large arena as is often the case. Instead, Biden spoke directly to the camera, in a more intimate way, addressing Americans who had lost someone in the pandemic. Those words are worth rereading today:
“On this summer night, let me take a moment to speak with those of you who have lost the most. I know what it feels like to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens in your chest. Feel that your whole being is absorbed by it. I know how mean, cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But I have learned two things. First, your loved ones may have left this Earth, but they never left your heart. They will always be with you. Second, I discovered that the best way to overcome grief and loss is to find purpose. As children of God, each of us has a purpose in our life. And we have one great purpose as a nation: to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. To save our democracy. To be a light for the world again ”.
Drew Angerer via Getty Images
The roller coaster that he will have to face would make anyone dizzy: a constantly growing pandemic and an economy suffering its consequences; a movement for racial justice that will demand reforms; the devastating effects of climate change, so evident in the fires in the West. Above all, Biden will have to show that he can lead a fractured country and confront the bulging presence of Trump, who remains the dominant force in the Republican Party with no obvious successor other than his son. Their policies will undoubtedly be challenged in court, where they will eventually collide with a conservative-majority Supreme Court. The Republican Party is on track to retain a majority in the Senate, immediately placing it in a position of greater weakness than its predecessors. The task that awaits him from now on is very difficult, but in the meantime the first part is gone: he demonstrated how to beat a bully by staying true to oneself, strengths and weaknesses included, with the broad shoulders of one who knows pain and knows. respect that of others.
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