Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Jan. 21, 2021
By Bill McCann
I haven’t seen many presidential inaugurations, but I did walk from my office to Lyndon Johnson’s inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in 1965. I saw it from long distance because of the huge crowd. And I will never forget the pride I felt watching Barack Obama’s historic first inauguration on television in 2009.
But last week’s inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was even more special, even though the crowd was small due to the COVID-19 pandemic and beefed-up security at the Capitol where a failed insurrection took place two weeks earlier. I was glued to the TV for hours, like millions of others, initially entertained by several A-listers. Lady Gaga sang a stunning national anthem; Jennifer Lopez gave a rousing “This Land is Your Land” and “America the Beautiful;” Garth Brooks offered a powerful “Amazing Grace;” and 22-year-old Amanda Gorman gave an electrifying reading of her poem of healing and hope.
Throughout the day, I alternated between relief and elation, also the operative words on social media posts from friends and strangers alike. That’s because Biden, a caring, competent, decent man, had wrested the White House from Donald Trump, a self-centered, inept, corrupt conman who preached divisiveness and lied to us more times than we could count. I was sick of waking up worried about the latest horrific thing Trump had said or done.
Biden’s inauguration ended a dark chapter in America’s political history. In his inaugural address, he outlined several crises his administration will tackle head-on. He promised to make truth a priority. He called for the end to the “uncivil” political war that has invaded the nation. He appealed for unity, likely an overly ambitious goal considering the nation’s political divisiveness that reached a fever pitch with Trump.
Trump’s lies and exhortations to supporters led to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 by a bunch of misguided Trumpsters seeking to stop the peaceful transfer of power. It was the low point in a presidency rife with low points and got Trump impeached a second time.
Trump never conceded the election. Instead he fled to his Florida club, again flouting presidential norms and traditions, this time by boycotting his successor’s inauguration. It was the first time an outgoing president had done so in 152 years. He was not missed. Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama and their wives were there to show how adults behave.
Meanwhile, Biden and Harris are preparing to take on the mess left behind by Trump’s failed presidency, beginning with an all-out effort to control COVID-19, which has killed some 430,000 Americans to date. Biden and Harris showed their class and compassion on inauguration eve by holding a ceremony honoring Americans who died of COVID-19. It was something empathy-challenged Trump failed to do. Instead, he regularly downplayed the pandemic as his administration botched its response to it.
Only hours after taking the oath of office, Biden signed 17 directives, undoing some of Trump’s worst environmental, economic and other policies. He reinstated ties with the World Health Organization; ordered the wearing of masks on all federal property; revoked Trump’s plan to exclude noncitizens from the census count; reentered the U.S. in the Paris climate agreement; and established ethics rules for those serving in his administration.
After watching and listening to Biden on Inauguration Day, including his pep talk to newly hired staff about the importance of public service, I came away reassured that he is the right remedy at the right time for our ailing nation. He’s not perfect. No one is. But his leadership is desperately needed. Plus, we now have a president who actually cares about people, rather than only himself.
