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Miscellaneous & Quick Thoughts After the Biden Victory

By jayjiyuan
  • Watched the full speech of Biden this morning after the victory (but without Biden himself claiming it), and felt his themes of possibility, hope, heal, science, truth, decency, tolerance, unify, covid-19 and economy are all right on the spot.
  • Looks also matter: Biden looks like a gentle, nice and friendly grandpa to the American people. I also envy his energy level: At the age of almost 78 (coming January), he still runs like a fox and the pitch of his voice can even overtake people 30 years his junior. I read from somewhere that someone was asking “What if Biden died between now and inauguration?” But people typically do not die without any sign. Based on the signs I have seen, Biden can easily live and finish two terms.
  • Where to stand in a big fight matters even more: When people are deeply divided, those who hold the middle grounds, who are good at making compromises and listening to others tend to have a better chance of winning. Biden is exactly such a leader and is known for getting along with everyone during his decades of working in the Washington D.C. Americans should feel lucky to have him at this moment.
  • Trump blamed the Biden campaign for stealing his votes but in retrospect he really has “stolen” his own votes — by not taking or even showing any sign of leadership in fighting the virus. Given the extremely small margins in the battleground states, it is entirely possible that had Trump done even a minute more toward suppressing the pandemic, Biden would have little chance this year! Evidence from pre-election polls clearly showed that if economy were the only issue in 2020, the needle would have strongly moved in Trump’s favor. When asked whether their lives were “better off than four years ago” as reported in this excellent blog, Trump took away with a record high number of 56% who said “Yes,” dwarfing the same measure by previous presidents who won their re-elections: “Reagan was re-elected in a landslide with only 44 percent saying they were better off, George W. Bush won with 47 percent and Obama succeeded with 45 percent.” In other words, Trump had the best economic “high card” but he blew it completely!
  • Three things that Trump possesses have killed him: He is strategically as dumb as a stock; his thinking path is as narrow and as stubborn as a mule and his leadership style is as dictatorial as Hitler, Stalin or Mao. His strategic dumbness turned himself into someone who is “penny smart but pound foolish”; his stubbornness determined he won’t take turns or leap out of his own fixated box — keep economy as the top priority throughout his presidency, with or without the pandemic; finally, his dictatorial style drove him to run the White House like a private firm (with himself as the CEO) and to fire one cabinet member after another unless everyone is a “yes-man.” In the time of crisis, having only like-minded team members is a liability, not asset.
  • Americans love winners: I do not recall any Dem’s campaign event with so many people showed up, almost like another Trump’s rally — except with far more people wearing masks. This time it seems everyone wanted to come out to share the glory of winning when Biden was given a speech.
  • Having a GOP dominated senate is not always a bad thing for Biden: The chamber will keep some of Biden’s potential cabinet nominees like AOC & Sanders — and more importantly their progressive agenda — in check. America has suffered a great deal in the past four years and I wish Biden form a bipartisan cabinet with a middle ground agenda. The progressivism is less likely to help but more likely to offer new target of attacks from the right, thus further divides the nation.
  • By the same token, having a conservative Supreme Court may also not always be bad. In case we want to put Trump in jail or at least prosecute him, a conservative leaning high court will deliver decisions that are more convincing to the Trump supporters. The same holds when such a Supreme Court votes against Trump.
  • Biden has pronounced his number one task in January 2021 to form a panel of scientists on the pandemic. I sincerely hope such a panel would deliver a strong professional recommendation for mandatory mask wearing in the entire country. The new administration can then pick it up in an executive order for that effect. This way, Biden would mitigate the risk of being seen as making a political move, not science based move.
  • I feel my heart beats in sync with Biden, not with Kamara Harris. I hope Biden will take charge throughout his term or terms, not Harris. That said, there is a chance for Harris to become a liability for Biden once they entered to White House — if not before. I say this not because her identity as a black/Asian female, of course, but because her video on Equality vs. Equity. It is absolute right to promote assistances to the disadvantaged, but wrong to promote equality in outcomes. In her own words: “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place.” She clearly has not picked up the lesson from the failures of all former communist countries.
  • The problem with the first (or second) generation of immigrants is that although they speak perfect English (unlike their parents), their ideologies have been unconsciously shaped by their family upbringing. If AOC and guys like Ted Cruz (or Rubio) are representative, it seems they either go for or against their own roots. But going to extremes or taking sides is easy, learning from family roots and the American roots is harder but also makes you smarter.
  • This essay is the best I came across on the legal battles launched by Trump. The authors made an excellent point that by going to the courts rather than going to military forces, Trump is doing us a favor in strengthening our democracy that is based on rule of law, evidences and logics. It also helped me understand what has been going on in the courts. Also “Citing an anonymous source, a reporter tweeted that the entire legal strategy is designed so the president can save face by claiming that the election was rigged.” This is so Trump and totally believable. But I suspect something else might also be on Trump’s mind: To get more money from his supporters to pay for his debts, and to buy more time from delaying the power transition so he can plan for the next moves after concession. The essay was right that such a strategy, typical of dumbness of Trump, can and will backfire. The only thing I would add to their opinions is that the legal battle is all good and serves a meaningful cause — as long as it ends before the date of inauguration in next January. Anything getting on the way of a legal and normal power transfer should not be allowed.
  • I also understand the idea of this essay that the media should stop covering the legal petition under Trump campaign can provide evidences — given that the whole idea of these lawsuits is just sowing the seeds for contents and discreditability of the Biden victory. On the other hand, I don’t think Trump’s target audience is general public. Once again, he is best at speaking to his followers and media coverage or not, those people will know and will follow closely to every step of the change in the court. Even if the courts found no merits in these cases, his supporters will most likely be motivated by him. Meanwhile, for people not entirely committed to either side, they do have the right to know the latest.
  • This essay is good because it does more than looking at the campaign tactics to figure out why the Dems lost in 2016. Winning offices is important but leading the country forward matters even more. I was not in this country after 2004 so do not know exactly what went wrong but my hunch is that Obama should be at least partly responsible for the 2016 loss. His administration did not do enough to help shift the then newly unemployed workers in the Rust Belt to the service sector or re-employed. In that sense, the Dem betrayed the workers when they needed governmental assistances the most. It is this, more than any campaign tactics of Hillary Clinton, that had turned voters in the Rust Belt away to Trump.
  • Finding new economic growth points is the most important task for Biden after making progresses in fighting the virus. I can think of three tasks: Infrastructure face lifting, environmental related industries and general services. Maybe progressives like AOC could be appointed to the new administration for implementing the Green New Deal.
  • I found this concession speech of Trump very funny!

8 thoughts on “Miscellaneous & Quick Thoughts After the Biden Victory”

    1. jayjiyuan says:

      Thanks for the excellent suggestion! I have been aware of copyright issue so I tend to avoid using too many images and if I do use, I would go Creative Commons first. There may be times when I did not carry that attention through. Will check into it!

  3. erotik says:

    If you want to use the photo it would also be good to check with the artist beforehand in case it is subject to copyright. Best wishes. Aaren Reggis Sela

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