After four years of divisiveness, negativity, demonization, haughtiness, and condescension, the time of redemption has finally come. This is the light at the end of the tunnel. Honor is reinstated. Decency has been restored and respect for institutions brought back to this great nation.
These, in capsule form, are the messages of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as they prepare to take over the White House come twentieth of January 2021. The law does not require that the incumbent president issues a concession statement, much less call the winners to congratulate them, as other great statesmen have done before. It does not matter if the outgoing president will clog the dockets of the courts with election protests and all legal actions. The USA is a government of laws and not of men. The strength of history and the mandate of legal institutions demand that there should be a peaceful and decent transition. And that would happen as a matter of course. Sovereignty resides in the people and 75 million people have fired the incumbent and have installed Biden and Harris.
It is time to address the pandemic with enough attention and competence. It is time to respect the expert opinions of medical experts and to abandon politicizing the COVID crisis. It is time to reassure the American public that the government has a comprehensive, coherent, and conscientious strategy in addressing such a health menace. It is time to strengthen the affordable medical services act, Obamacare, and not to abrogate it. It is time to bring back hopes and positivity in the White House. It is time to give attention to the medical frontliners who risk their own health, safety, and lives in faithful sacrifice to heal the sick, minister to the dying, and bring healing to the hopeless patients in thousands of wards and emergency rooms.
Indeed, it is a milestone in US history that the Americans, at least majority of them, have decided to reject the politics of hatred and of divisiveness, of brazen abrasiveness, and of insult. Joe Biden has promised to bring back the soul of the nation, to rebuild the damaged backbone of American society and to regain the community of nations' respect and admiration for America. The new administration will rebuild the damaged relations with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and rationalize foreign relations with China, Russia, and North Korea. For us, Filipinos, the role of the USA is crucial in addressing the bullying maneuvers of the treacherous China. The US will definitely rejoin the Paris pact on climate change and reinforce relations with NATO and other alliances, including ASEAN and the EU.
President Biden will restore respect for immigrants, will reopen the doors of America to deserving aliens, as well as reverse the anti-Muslim policies of GOP and the racial and ethnic prejudice and discrimination that characterized the policies of the current administration. Without compromising national security, Biden and Harris will ably handle foreign affairs as did all previous Democrat presidents like presidents Obama, Clinton, Carter, Johnson, Kennedy, and FDR. Most importantly, US-Philippine relations will most probably be re-examined with stress on mutual respect and tolerance for each other, as long-time allies would be normally expected to do.
Biden is a healing president, and Harris will be a big help. Respect and decency will be restored. The ambiance of positivity and hopes shall invigorate the halls of the White House and all over the land. God has blessed America once again, the land of the free and the home of the brave.