Even without Senate, there's much Biden can get done
By Daniel Hemel / Special to The Washington Post
Democrats are understandably disappointed that Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will remain in charge of Congress’s upper chamber and that their party failed to flip a Senate seat in Maine. These losses sting even more coming just weeks after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the rushed confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement. For Democrats, a week that began with high hopes of a blue wave now ends with party leaders arguing over what went wrong.
But the most powerful position in the world is not Senate majority leader or senior senator from Maine or Supreme Court associate justice. It’s president of the United States. However narrow the win and nail-biting the wait, Democrats secured the main prize. And even with the likely Republican obstruction, President Biden will have the power to effect profound change across large swaths of American society.
Some of these changes will be rhetorical and symbolic; though symbolism can save lives. After nearly a year of a president peddling coronavirus conspiracy theories and quack medical treatments, we will have a chief executive who amplifies the messages of public health authorities. When the president wears a mask, millions of Americans may follow his lead, protecting themselves and their vulnerable neighbors. The potency of having a female vice president, with African American and Indian American heritage, also should not be underestimated: Kamala Harris may inspire children who will see that one can rise to power in the United States without being white or male. But the fruits of a Biden-Harris administration won’t be purely symbolic. They’ll be deeply substantive.
The most pressing challenge facing the incoming administration is likely to be the delivery of a coronavirus vaccine. We don’t know when a vaccine will arrive, but when it does, the distribution effort will present a logistical challenge unlike any the federal government has faced since World War II. Officials will have to deploy extraordinary administrative expertise and inspire widespread public confidence. Both of those tasks will be much easier under a president who staffs his agencies with professionals and who takes seriously the lessons of science, rather than a president who prizes loyalty over competence and who stokes anti-vaxxer sentiment.
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