It was a good beginning. Despite the windswept and largely deserted Capitol steps and the 25,000 National Guardsmen patrolling the streets of DC, it was still a hopeful scene. The legitimately elected president, a decent old white guy, was inaugurated by a visibly relieved looking John Roberts. Perhaps as important in a cosmic sense, Kamala Harris, a black woman of Jamaican and Southeast Asian ancestry took the oath as Vice President.
Of course, when your party wins and takes power, no matter what the President and VP say it will sound high minded. As one pundit reminded us, however, Jimmy Carter sounded very good at his inaugural and look what happened. Fortunately, unlike Carter, Joe Biden has made a career out of the inside deal in Washington. Carter was an engineer, not a politician and could not get along, even with Democrats.
Another criticism of Biden is his relentless centrist stands on policy matters great and small. Fortunately, the party itself is moving leftward at a pretty good pace and Biden seemingly has no problem with that. Most of his appointees are decent progressives who will acquit themselves well. He made a great start soon after the inauguration, signing a flurry of executive orders meant to cancel the previous president's* witless and mendacious attempts to make Americans' lives harder. He also started the process of getting rid of moles planted by tRump's minions.
So far, so good. It will get hard soon, but at least the new POTUS is saying the right things.
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