Build back bitter

摘要

Democrat Joe Biden, if he is elected to the Oval Ofce as now seems increasingly likely, is sure to uphold one of the recent trends of the presidency — shifting US energy, environmental and foreign policy priorities drastically. But the yet more bitterly divided country revealed by the election means that Democrats will not get the clean break that they had hoped for from four years of President Donald Trump, even if Biden takes over the White House in January after prevailing against spurious legal and other challenges to the results. Biden has cast Trump as an aberration from US political norms. But the incumbent has expanded his electorate since 2016, even though it is now concen-trated in fewer states, likely denying him a second term. And the Democrats’ hopes for a landslide in the congressional elections appear to have been dashed. The parties and their electorates are more polarised now, with diametrically diferent views on issues including the future of the US energy mix and climate change. Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda — ending the recession, containing Covid-19, tackling climate change and reviving pre-Trump foreign policy priorities — will consequently be difcult to implement without full backing from Congress.