Joe Biden is now the president, even as a block of roughly 35 to 40 million Republican voters remains convinced that his victory on Nov. 3 was illegitimate, despite his capture of a decisive majority of the popular vote and the Electoral College. …
Biden may look battered and worn, but he possesses a rudimentary integrity that has been missing from the Oval Office for the last four years. He faces a staggering array of challenges, not least within Congress and the judiciary on which he will rely to enact and uphold his ambitious agenda.
I asked scholars who explore issues of social conflict and polarization about the predicament Biden finds himself in. There were optimists and pessimists. If recent history provides a guide, the pessimists may well carry the day. CONTINUED
Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times