Discussion: Can Joe Biden Heal America?

Three scholars discuss how President Joe Biden can heal the deep divide within America.

Sarah Churchwell is an author, commentator, a Professor of American Literature, and Chairman of The Public Understanding of the Humanities at the University of London.

Osita Nwanevu is a staff writer at the New Republic, a former staff writer at the New Yorker, and former editor-in-chief of the Southside Weekly.

Danielle Pletka is a Senior Fellow of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and co-host of the podcast: What the Hell is Going On?

Nwanevu started off the discussion by talking about the importance of the Biden Administration being active as soon as possible. An important factor in his beginning part of the presidency is sending out another COVID-19 relief bill.

“He’s going to be faced with an epochal situation in this country we haven’t really face anything like before,” he said.

Churchwell added onto this by saying that Biden is not capable of fully healing the country. He does have the ability to begin the process of healing that many hope to see.

“The Trump Administration has spent four years poisoning public discourse and political discourse,” she said.

She believes that Biden will not be a centralist president; rather, a transitional president. His main goal will be to prepare America for the next generation of political leadership.

Pletka transitioned to the topic of whether Biden has the ability to reach out to Republicans in Congress. It will be a very smart move for him to do so, but it may be impossible. A lot of Democrats will be calling for institutional changes that will stop Biden from bridging the political gap.

A major question that a lot of people pondered is whether the Republican Party will become the party for the working class.

 Nwanevu said that it will not happen. When people are talking about the working class, it is typically in reference to the white working class. There is still a major demographic of Black and Hispanic working class.

He does acknowledge that a lot of Democrats have taken minority voters for granted. Urban cities like Baltimore still suffer from poverty and violence even though they are controlled by Democrats.

The big issue is that the working class is continuously becoming more disengaged with politics.  It is important for Biden to bring an economic agenda that directly improves lives in order to reengage people.

A very major challenge Pletka believes the President must overcome is right wing conspiracy. A lot of this comes from social media.

“The problem with social media is that it amplifies, it joins, and it provides people with a sense of community who, y’know, who used to feel like outsiders and who rightly should have felt like outsiders,” she said.

She believes that social media has allowed people to come together who have very dangerous beliefs. This led to the violence in the Capital Building.

She says that the discussion of allowing dangerous beliefs on social media will lead to an ethical debate of the First Amendment.

She ponders this question: how does one deal with a person with unacceptable views that are not lawless? On one hand, having social media police freedom of speech is very dangerous, but on the other hand, allowing dangerous ideological beliefs to grow can be just as bad.