Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1331728
7 NEWS 21.01.2021 tion from core supporters in future pri- mary elections. e fact is that America, like all de- mocracies, needs what used to be called "a loyal opposition" to point out the inevitable drawbacks in the poli- cies of the governing party. What the country needs, however, is a ration- al GOP that acts in the best interests of the country, not an opposition that accommodates a group of crazed ex- tremists determined to overthrow the government. Historians will doubtless note that Donald Trump's approach to govern- ment was politically doomed from the start. His path to victory pitted under- populated, largely rural states with a ma- jority in the US Senate, against the coun- try's heavily populated urban centers that constitute the nation's nerve center for its future economic growth. Trump's special target for attack was California, whose $3.2 trillion gross pro- duction currently ranks the state as the world's fifth most powerful economy. Had Trump continued, he would have led the country into a downward eco- nomic spiral that would ultimately have created another depression. Much of Trump's hardcore sup- port during the 2016 election resulted from insights and initiatives from his then-master strategist, Steve Bannon. Bannon realized that, since the country is nearly equally divided between right and left, a major effort to energise ul- tra-rightwing groups, which were previ- ously ignored as part of a lunatic fringe, just might be enough to tip the balance in the key swing states that could deter- mine the election. e strategy worked. Bannon eventually left the White House and went on to promote his own brand of fascism in Europe. With Bannon gone, Trump, with the help of Stephen Miller, continued to draw his support from the base that Bannon had previously iden- tified. When members of that base laid siege to the Capitol, they sealed Trump's political doom. Economic woes All of that is in the past. e key prob- lems today are the pandemic and the economy. e pandemic hit just as Trump was doing everything in his pow- er to reduce government support for health care. As the virus spread, millions of Americans risked losing their medical coverage along with their jobs. It soon became apparent that the virus made no distinction between rich and poor. To stop it, everyone needs to be part of the campaign. Even if the pandemic ended tomorrow, the US economy would still be in serious trouble. Unemployment has stripped the states and municipalities of the tax funds they need to function. at is because, af- ter shifting the primary responsibility for dealing with the pandemic to the states, Trump refused to release the funds that the states needed to do the job. Trump's tax cuts to the wealthy and major corporations did not help. e early days of the Trump administra- tion created the illusion of an economic boom, but it was just that — an illusion. Biden faces the task of restoring a sense of reality, and that will very likely result in some economic pain. e United States has often respond- ed well in times of crisis, but here again Trump confused the nation by heighten- ing ethnic and racial differences and then using his position as president to spread patently false information. As a result, it is now more difficult than ever to know whom to trust. And none of this takes into account that sooner or later the US will have to get back to competing in the global marketplace. at will depend on re- building confidence in the US, no easy task after four years in which Trump al- ienated most of its traditional allies and partners. Along with rebuilding confidence, Bid- en will also have to deal with the country's seriously disintegrating infrastructure. For the US to have a hope of remaining competitive in the global market, he will need to invest substantially in public ed- ucation and universal health care. Most of all, he will have to convince all Ameri- cans of the need to pull together. Biden, in short, will have to deal with multiple fronts of intense, pent-up de- mand from day one. On the positive side, he has had 40 years of government experience to pre- pare himself; he is no stranger to person- al tragedy and, at the age of 78, he doesn't have that much left to lose. President Donald Trump left Washington on his last trip on Air Force One 25,000 National Guard troops were deployed around Washington Joe Biden taking his oath as the 46th President of the USA