A missed point in Biden-Harris Inauguration
Did the world just listen to a 22-year-old poet speak pearls of wisdom? Absolutely. What an eye opener!
Post my visit to the US in March 2017, I could not visit the United States during the 45th President, Donald Trump’s regime. My own business exigencies made me focus in domestic investments in India.
The economic numbers of the US, as the Marine One finally carried the now-ex-President Trump into the morning skies, were remarkable. The stock market is doing well, the unemployment numbers are low and the GDP numbers are attractive. I will skip the details. This is NOT an article of economy.
The actions of the President from Charlottesville to Capitol Hill were divisive and harmful. Akin to the US, it might be interesting to note that the democratic world, especially India, the largest democracy, is again deeply getting divided. The division comes from the classic struggle between those who are already in, and those who are to be let in — the present citizenry vs the immigrants.
The majoritarian angst stemming from lack of attention from the powers that be, resulting in deterioration of ‘living conditions’ and unemployment could be a serious issue.
By design, a leader arises who taps into this angst, and then channelizes into a divisive rhetoric. The issue is real, but the rhetoric is unnecessary and has repercussions.
As the new administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris takes over, the promise of doing away this divisive rhetoric is a near-reality. A new dawn has broken across the United States.
‘Politics need not be a raging fire that destroys everything in its path — we listen, we hear, we disagree’. That dignified exchange and tolerance is the need for the hour. ‘Unity’ is the solution, Biden exhorted from the ramparts of Capitol Hill.
That fixes the how.
What about the ‘what?’ What I am about say may be contrarian, but it is the diagnosis.
What did Barack Obama miss, that Donald Trump saw, came and conquered? And what is that that continues to simmer, while we savor the promising words of Amanda Gorman?
The majority angst. That is the root cause of this challenge. In the US. In India. Elsewhere. Somewhere, if Biden and Harris can address this majority diaspora, deal with their concerns, and connect with them, the temperature will be lowered.
There is a wide gap in the aisle, but I wish that somebody is bold enough to walk across; the next four years is long enough to address this root cause, once and forever.
Inclusiveness includes majority as well. It is a hard problem to tackle, but if the President Biden really means that he is for ‘All Americans’, he must bite this bullet.
Think. Then we will not have the Donald Trumps again.
~Ashok Subramanian
