Battle for the American leadership commences
This November’s US presidential election is now all about coronavirus
On Monday night in Wisconsin, former Vice-President Joe Biden took the state and also garnered the endorsement of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, effectively ending the Democratic race to select its candidate to oppose US President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.
The way forward is clear — come November 3, Americans will choose between Trump, a president who has set about erasing the legacy of eight years of Barack Obama, or Biden, the former president’s supporting act who will campaign to rekindle those liberal values now almost a distant memory.
In political terms, this pandemic has exposed the deep fissures of dysfunction that have corroded the US political foundation since President Trump took office
But this campaign is now about one issue: Coronavirus. And the responsibility now lies with Biden and his supporters to hold President Donald Trump to account for his handling of this pandemic.
In economic terms, this pandemic has laid waste the gains of a generation, crippling the world’s largest economy, inflicting a level of debt that is onerous, costing more than 6 million workers their jobs.
Precarious nature of work
Coronavirus has exposed the precarious nature of work for many, exposing the hand-to-mouth pay cheque to the pay cheque lives of so many Americans.
In political terms, this pandemic has exposed the deep fissures of dysfunction that have corroded the US political foundation since President Trump took office.
The once-dominant strength of the federal system has become little more a hessian sack holding 50 vying states who compete on an inflated market for vital medical supplies to fight this virus.
An unprepared presidency fights coronavirus by washing its hands of responsibility.
And in leadership terms, this campaign will be about who is fit to lead America for the next four years. Who has the fortitude of character, the record of trust, the strength of moral fibre — and who fumbled when the nation was most in need of those qualities.
There is a battle to be won now in ensuring that the conditions are put in place to ensure that the death toll is kept as low as humanly possible, that the economy reopens while balancing the very fine equation between life and lives, and that America exits its economic hibernation to re-assume its global role.
Come November, this campaign now between Trump and Biden should enable US voters to pass verdict on whether this pandemic was best handled by the existing leadership, or whether it was found wanting at a time of Americans’ greatest need.
The next few months will decide the political future of the US in the years ahead.