The New York Times Editorial Board used the occasion of Joe Biden’s apparent victory to once again slam President Trump.
“Having peered into the abyss of autocratic nationalism, the American people have chosen to step back from the brink. The ballot counting will continue for a few days yet, but the math is what it is: Joe Biden will have the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, and likely many more. President Trump’s four-year assault on our democratic institutions and values will soon end.”
The Times noted that both sides were disappointed in the election results as the Democrats didn’t recapture the Senate which will impede Biden’s agenda while Trump’s loss will only embolden his critics. As they acknowledged the divide in the country they felt that Biden will be able to bring everyone together though they didn’t specify how a man who won largely because he wasn’t Donald Trump would do that.
“Fortunately for America, Mr. Biden promises to be a president for both sides — a welcome shift from a leader who has spent his tenure dividing the electorate into perceived fans and enemies.”
Then came the repudiation of Trump and his policies by the editorial board.
Come January, Mr. Biden will take office facing a jumble of crises. His predecessor is leaving America weaker, meaner, poorer, sicker and more divided than four years ago. Recent events have laid bare, and often exacerbated, many of the nation’s pre-existing conditions: from the inadequacy of our health care system to the cruelty of our immigration policies, from entrenched racial inequities to the vulnerabilities of our electoral system. Mr. Biden has pledged himself to big thinking and bold action in tackling these challenges.
Mr. Trump’s message of fear and resentment resonated with tens of millions of Americans. Trumpism will not magically disappear. If anything, its adherents will very likely find renewed energy and purpose in marshaling a new resistance movement committed to undermining and delegitimizing the incoming administration.
The only real fearmongering that took place during the campaign came from the Democrats and the media which was hyper-focused on blaming Trump for all Covid related deaths and drilled into voters’ minds that the administration had no plan to control the virus. What seems to really bother the Times is that Trump received far more votes overall than predicted keeping the national vote total much closer than expected showing that he had tremendous support at a time when in their minds he should have done much worse.
Borrowing from Trump’s main campaign theme the Times is now counting on Biden to make America greater than before without specifying how he will be able to do that given the current political situation.
“With the perspective of time, the Trump era is likely to be viewed as an extended stress test for the American experiment. The president did his best to undermine the nation’s democratic foundations. They were shaken, but they did not break. Mr. Trump exposed their vulnerabilities but also their strength. It now falls to Mr. Biden to improve and safeguard those foundations, to help restore faith in our democracy and ourselves — to make America greater than ever before.”
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