33
Then there is the question of tapping the federal trea-
sury on the way out—his companies and family have
pocketed millions in government funds during his
time in office—and whether he might seek to par-
don himself and his allies. “His impulse might be to
abuse executive authority, and my hope and prayer
is that those around him would restrain him, though
they haven’t been very successful so far,” says Tom
Ridge, the GOP former Pennsylvania governor and
Homeland Security Secretary who endorsed Biden.
“I have never felt that this President has ever truly
respected the Constitution, the rule of law and the
freedoms embodied in our democratic process.”
If Biden does take office, he will confront a set of
challenges like few Presidents before him. He has
laid out a comprehensive—and expensive—federal
plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic that includes
promoting mask wearing, ramping up testing and
the production of protective equipment, improving
information transparency and scientific reopen-
ing guidance, and creating and distributing a vac-
cine. Democrats have previously proposed trillions
in new spending to help individuals, busi-
nesses and local governments and shore up
the health care system needs that will only
grow in the coming months.
The coronavirus is far from the only
problem Biden and the Democrats have
promised to solve. A former chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
Biden would likely devote great attention
to restoring America’s traditional trade and
security alliances. House Speaker Nancy Pe-
losi recently said the congressional agenda
for 2021 would include a major infrastruc-
ture bill and an expansion of health care.
Liberals will be pushing for fast action on police re-
form, climate and immigration. Democrats have been
remarkably unified since Biden effectively sewed up
the nomination in March, but the party’s left wing has
signaled it will not be so deferential once victory is in
hand. Progressive groups have been circulating lists
of potential Biden nominees they would (and would
not) accept for key Administration posts.
Four years of Trump have left Democrats with few
worries about overreading their mandate. “If we win
the election, we have a mandate to make change, pe-
riod,” says Guy Cecil, president of the Democratic
super PAC Priorities USA. But if Republicans retain
their hold on the Senate, prospects for major legis-
lation will be dim. Republicans had won 48 seats as
of the evening of Nov. 4, with at least one January
runoff in Georgia that could decide the balance of
power in the chamber.
Whatever the ultimate result, the election exposed
the shaky edifice of U.S. democracy. From the anti-
quated governing institutions that increasingly re-
ward minoritarian rule, to the badly wounded norms
surrounding the independent administration of jus-
tice, to the flimsy protections of supposedly universal
suffrage, to the nation’s balky and underfunded elec-
tion infrastructure, Trump’s presidency has laid bare
the weaknesses in our system. But initiatives to reform
campaign finance, government ethics and voting rights
seem fated to run aground in a divided Washington.
A round of harsh recriminations seems certain for
the Democrats, who had assumed that their coali-
tion of minorities, college-educated white people and
young voters was destined only to grow as a share of
the electorate, while the post-Trump GOP would be
doomed to rely on a dwindling population of older,
white, non-college-educated voters. Instead, Repub-
licans appeared to have increased their share of the
Black and Latino vote. Democrats failed to topple
any GOP incumbents in Texas and lost a congres-
sional seat in New Mexico. Their hopes for a surge
of college-educated suburban voters also fell short,
suggesting that the GOP’s attacks on liberal ideol-
ogy proved effective in places like Oklahoma City
and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Democrats need to ask
themselves why someone like Joe Biden is
an endangered species in the party,” says
Justin Gest, a political scientist at George
Mason University and author of The New
Minority: White Working Class Politics in
an Age of Immigration and Inequality. “Why
is the party of experts, urban intellectuals
and woke social- movement activists not
producing candidates who can mobilize
people in Montana, Ohio, North Carolina?
It just doesn’t look like a national party.”
Republicans, even if they lose the presi-
dency, are likely to feel emboldened to con-
tinue pursuing Trump’s themes. “Donald
Trump isn’t going away,” says Buck, the former Ryan
adviser. “He’s still going to be the leader of the party
and the biggest voice, and he’ll at least flirt with the
idea of running again. It’s going to continue to be a
populist, grievance-fueled party.”
Some elections mark a breakthrough—the emer-
gence of a new American majority after years of con-
flict and gridlock. A landslide like Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt’s in 1932 or Ronald Reagan’s in 1980 would
have signaled a nation ready to move on from its cul-
tural and ideological cleavages and seek some way
forward together. Instead it looks more bitterly split
than ever. “There was a substantial political divide
in this country before Donald Trump was elected,”
Ridge says. “His presidency has exacerbated that di-
vide to an almost unimaginable degree. But that did
not begin with Donald Trump, and it will not end
with him, either.” —With reporting by Charlotte
alter, brian bennett and tessa berenson/
Washington; anna purna kambhampaty/
honolulu; and mariah espada, alejandro
de la garza and simmone shah/neW york ‘[THE
DEMOCRATS]
JUST DON’T
LOOK LIKE
A NATIONAL
PARTY.’
—Justin Gest,
political scientist, George
Mason University