Jonny McCambridge: Joe Biden’s unfashionable road to the White House

The bulk of it, unsurprisingly, has been political coverage. There was the inevitable long night as I watched the US presidential election results trickle through. Then many more hours of reports and analysis were digested over subsequent days as the tortuous counting process ground on seemingly without end, showing the same relentless persistence as the shrub in my front garden that keeps growing back no matter how many times I cut it out.

As happens every four years during the race to occupy the Oval Office, I appoint myself as a temporary expert on the American electoral college voting system. I know that California has a huge 55 votes, I know that Maine and Nebraska split their votes, I know of the vital importance of the ‘Rust Belt’ states in determining the winner. I talk with authority about flipped states, projections by US networks and the excellence of CNN’s John King and his ‘magic wall’.

The problem is that within a few weeks my sharp grasp of the minutiae of the system will fade like the coating on my garden fence. Soon the electoral college will be just something I knew a lot about for a short time; until November 2024 when I once again assume my position of expertise.

The same point could be extrapolated across most of what I have watched in the past week. Countless reports, hundreds of interviews, a great explosion of strong opinion, a staggering amount of data. All of it I have processed, much of it has had an immediate impact on me, some of it has seemed sensible, virtually none of it I will remember this time next year.

There is one exception. It is Wednesday night and I have not slept in more than 20 hours. The coverage continues and I’m just about hanging in there. Candidate Joe Biden delivers a speech at a time when the polls seem to indicate that the election is turning decisively in his favour. I sit straight and try to rouse my weary brain into one last effort of absorbing information. During the address Biden makes a remark which I immediately scribble down on a scrap of paper.

‘To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.’

Then I go to bed. However, despite my extreme state of exhaustion I find, not unusually, that I cannot immediately sleep. There are too many thoughts rattling around my brain, competing for prominence.

I think about Biden and the increasing likelihood that he will become the next president. I consider that I’m not very knowledgeable about the character of the individual, but recollect that I was unexcited when he was first selected as the candidate. I am aware that he was previously vice-president, that he has endured personal tragedy, that a previous presidential bid was derailed when he was caught plagiarising a Neil Kinnock speech. I’ve been struck over the past day by how many commentators have remarked about his basic ‘decency’, although there’s an instinct within me that assumes that anyone who rises so high in US politics must also possess a strong ruthless streak. The truth is I don’t really know.

It is also unclear how effective he will be as president. The final make up of Congress, which will go a long way to determining his chances of success, is still to be fixed. Also, it has to be pointed out, Biden will be by some distance the oldest ever holder of an office which surely demands inexhaustible levels of energy and resilience.

But I keep coming back to the words I wrote down during his speech.

‘To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.’

It occurs to me that is the sort of thing all new presidents say. Magnanimity is a much easier coat to wear when you are the winner. I certainly remember the current president making remarks about uniting the country during his victory speech four years ago. The real test, of course, is whether Biden can bring any substance to his sentiments.

Over the subsequent days, as the contest continues and is then concluded (barring legal challenges), I notice the phrase I scribbled down being repeated over and over on social media. It seems to have become some sort of rallying call for those who are weary of name-calling, brutish language and ceaseless confrontation.

Perhaps this form of sloganeering is naïve and the truth is that ideological cleavages carved into political landscapes, whether in the US or closer to home, are just too wide to be bridged. Rancorous partisanship and polarisation now run rampant and are encouraged by baying supporters who prefer humiliation of opponents to rapprochement.

It is attractive to suppose that Biden won by appealing to the nobler instinct of voters, but I suspect that a significant number were instead motivated by hatred towards the present incumbent. To some extent this is unsurprising, much is determined by emotion, and in particular how we react to certain personalities.

But part of Biden’s achievement must be at least an intent to appeal to those emotions which make us feel better about ourselves, an attempt to rouse hope rather than fear, to appeal for unity rather than division.

While I scan through social media I encounter the expression of a lot of hostile opinion. It comes from supporters of both sides. Then, amid it all, I read a tweet from the new president-elect.

‘We have to remember the purpose of our politics isn’t totally unrelenting warfare.’

As I said before, it remains unclear exactly what sort of president Joe Biden will make. But perhaps his legacy has already been set. Just when it was assumed that such notions had forever passed out of fashion, he has shown that you can be moderate and temperate, you can try to build consensus - and you can still win. That is worth remembering.

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