America is divided – but Joe Biden is the right person to bring people together

Editorial: It is now for the president-elect to show that he can win the confidence of the whole people, including, and perhaps especially, those who did not vote for him

(Brian Adcock)

Joe Biden must bring America together – and he will. He has a better chance than anyone of bridging the yawning chasms between the nation’s many tribes, which have increasingly and sadly sought to cut themselves off from each other.

This is not just about Democrats and Republicans. It is about rural and city; about Main Street and Wall Street; about young and old; about white and the many shades of people of colour; about college-educated and high-school leavers; about people of faith and those with secular views; and most essentially of all, about women and men.  

In his first speech as president-elect, Mr Biden uttered the memorable words: “This is the time to heal in America.” His task will be to rule for the losers, as well as the winners. In the rough trade of democracy there has to be a winner and a loser. There can only be one president. But while he has amassed more than 75 million votes, the most in the nation’s history, Donald Trump has received some 71 million, the second largest tally ever recorded. Those people are just as important to the future of the nation and indeed the world.