Can Joe Biden stop America's 'uncivil war'?

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Kate Andrews has narrated this article for you to listen to.

Having won more votes than any presidential candidate in American history, Joe Biden might have hoped for a triumphant entry into Washington. Instead, he travelled to the inauguration in a private plane to deliver his speech to more members of the National Guard than guests. A combination of the pandemic and security fears ruined normal proceedings: the event had become a target, crowds too great a risk.

The emptiness embodies the problem Biden needs to overcome: not just the spats between left- and right-wing politicians, but the unravelling of trust in American politics. His challenge goes beyond governing. It is the question of how to unite the country — or, at least, how to repair the social fabric so that the scenes of the past few months are remembered as a freak incident in US history, rather than the start of a new, dangerous era.

The new president seems to understand the weight of this task, making unity the main focus of his inauguration speech: ‘My whole soul is in this,’ Biden said. ‘Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation.’ Yet if you were to hand-pick the political hero America needs in these fragile times, the gaffe-prone 78-year-old wouldn’t seem the obvious first choice. Much of Biden’s political past is defined by failure and rejection. After his surprise Senate victory in 1972 — when, aged 29, he beat establishment Republican J. Caleb Boggs for the seat in Delaware — he had not one but two failed bids for the presidency. Even Barack Obama, whom he served as vice-president for eight years, made it pretty clear that he wanted Hillary Clinton to succeed him in 2016.

The scenes of recent months could come to be seen as a freak incident – or as the start of a new, dangerous era

Former senator Ted Kaufman once said that his friend Biden was the ‘unluckiest’ and ‘luckiest’ person he knew; the former referring not just to political but personal tragedies, including the loss of Biden’s first wife and his daughter in a car accident; the latter a reference to having ‘things happen to him that are just absolutely incredible’.