George Shealy 

The pessimist in me says that a fox has replaced a wolf. That is, the Biden administration will preserve the current neoliberal status of things but will do so with a polished image, rather than the hard-man persona of the Trump administration. Obama did this well. We saw horrendous domestic and foreign policy masked by a suit and a smile; but Biden is no Obama and will struggle to maintain the façade of his promised utopia -which he named ‘normality’- against the increasing contradictions and crises of the global neoliberal system. 

Biden campaigned on two things: that he isn’t Trump nor Bernie Sanders. It isn’t always helpful to judge a politician on what they have done in the past; times change and so do they in order to maintain power. This means that popular will might see some ambitious changes made. But that is doubtable. Returning to the same detachment from working-class issues, continual degradation of the world ecosystem and declining racial justice created by former centrists will leave us in a climate of hate that created the conditions for a Trump character. There is hunger for change, but it seems that continuity is on the menu.

Robbie Sweeten

Joe Biden may have won the presidency but he now faces fierce structural problems. One such problem is the Senate; if the Republicans maintain a majority, they will be able to block Biden’s policies. A Republican win seems likely. The party is winning the race 50-48. In order to secure the senate, the Democrats would need to win both seats in Georgia, but the last time the party even won one was in 2000. However, Biden could use executive orders to overturn Trump’s policies.

While Biden could circumvent a minority in the Senate, this cannot be done with the Supreme Court.

Trump has appointed three conservative Justices to the court, giving the Republicans a 6-3 majority. This balance does not change with a Biden presidency. This means if cases are raised in federal courts concerning gay rights, abortion or Obamacare, the Supreme Court can intervene and overturn legislation surrounding these issues. As a result, the gay rights, women’s rights and the accessibility of healthcare are on the line. We shouldn’t forget that these Justices are elected for life; their rulings may not be overturned for decades to come.

The significance of this: while we should be excited about Biden’s plans for education, healthcare and climate change, we should remain concerned about the future of human rights. 

Samir Sehgal 

This election was never about Joe Biden or the pledges that he made to the American public. This election was a referendum on one man. Donald Trump. With Trump comes his hideous family, his fanatical supporters and his utterly spineless party. This election was about ridding America of these tumours which had infected the body politic from the Oval office. Therefore, in Biden’s victory, we can rejoice. However, we should be under no illusions regarding what a Biden presidency itself will offer, mostly because it’ll be very little.

The Democrats have lost ground in the House of Representatives and most likely have failed to recapture the Senate, therefore whatever milquetoast reforms people are expecting will probably not see the light of day. What we should therefore expect, is something that resembles a third term of Obama, without the charisma.

What is different, is that unlike in 2008 when the organised Left consisted of a handful of lecturers in major cities, now, galvanised by the two-time candidacy of Bernie Sanders, the millions of mostly young Americans who seek to attack Biden from the Left, now have a platform from which to do so. Whether that be Senator Sanders himself, or ‘The Squad’ of young Congresswomen in the House of Representatives. Moreover, the spectre for radicalising liberals before the next Democratic primary is promising, given the failure that a Biden administration will inevitably be.

Nevertheless, for the time being, we should rejoice that America’s backsliding into fascism has been halted, at least temporarily, and we should enjoy conservatives in America, and at home, melting down over the downfall of their hero.

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