[…] Furthermore, Joe Biden’s narrow victory in what he himself described as “the most important election in our lifetime” leaves the national political landscape remarkably unchanged. Democratic hopes of gaining control of the Senate appear unlikely to materialize. In the House of Representatives, the party actually lost seats. Biden is a winner with no coattails. The electorate that has ousted Trump from the presidency has refrained from endorsing a leftward shift in American politics. Biden brings to office a mandate that is somewhere between slight and non-existent. […]
Let me suggest that there is one arena where Biden might actually make some progress toward fulfilling his promise to “save America’s soul.” I refer to foreign policy.[…]
Progress here will require changing course on an issue that went almost entirely unmentioned during the run-up to the election: our nation’s disastrous affinity for war. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, war has become the principal signature of American statecraft. Over the course of three decades of sustained military activism, U.S. troops have suffered terrible losses while winning few conclusive victories. “Forever wars” in places like Afghanistan and Iraq have added trillions of dollars to the national debt.[…]
On that score, Donald Trump was an exception. If the train wreck of his presidency has any redeeming feature, it is found in his recognition that “endless wars” do not serve the national interest. Of course, Trump being Trump, he demonstrated neither the attention span nor the constancy of purpose to make good on his vow to end them. Even so, his repeated promise to do so resonated with his followers. Put simply, Trumpism contains a strong antiwar component.
So if President-elect Biden is serious about bringing the country together, here is one place where he might find common ground with the 70 million who preferred his opponent. Pro-Trumpers will never agree with Biden on abortion, gun ownership, climate change, or “socialism.” But if a Biden administration restores a measure of prudence to U.S. military policy, they just might respond favorably. Läs artikel