Biden: liberal changes or token gestures?

The inauguration of a new American President is always a time of great expectations, but especially now, after the sorry end to the previous regime.

Most people are relieved that the transfer of power went off without a hitch. The overarching need to deal with the pandemic is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and Joe Biden’s promise to deliver 100 million does of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office is being widely hailed as an ambitious but still achievable goal. In the circumstances, other matters have taken a back seat. Biden is a sincere Catholic and his recent attendance at church has been duly noted, though some of his executive orders are not what the Vatican would have prescribed. He has rescinded the restrictions on abortion that the previous administration introduced and has appointed homosexual and transgender people to prominent positions. He has also removed the bar to transgendered soldiers serving in the armed forces. It is hard to say what practical effect things like that will have, and for the moment few people are talking openly about them. Whether they are the tip of a looming iceberg of radical reform, or simply a nod to left-wing lobbies that will soon be disappointed in their deeper aims, remains to be seen.

The churches and the evangelical community have been fairly quiet. Some have used recent events to reiterate the need to stay out of partisan politics; perhaps they will, at least in the short term. The Republican Party needs to reinvent itself under more moderate leadership, but whether it can do so without alienating its base is hard to say. Donald Trump is unlikely return to active political life, but he casts a long shadow over his party and may yet determine the fate of prospective presidential candidates in 2024.