Biden’s Early Days

insurrection weeks earlier, Biden placed his right hand on a bible held by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, as Chief Justice John Roberts conducted the ceremony.

         If there was a notable theme to Biden’s speech that day, it was national unity and healing. While he never mentioned him by name, it was a statement clearly intended to rebuke the tone of his predecessor. The seemingly generic promise to be “a President for all Americans,” and not just for those who voted for him, seemed, during this inauguration, to be a radical departure from the constantly inflammatory rhetoric of President Trump.

         Since his inauguration, President Biden has been working frantically on pressing issues that Americans face. The federal government’s response and management of the COVID virus was, of course, at the top of that list. The new administration has a stated a modest goal of vaccinating 150 million Americans in 100 hundred days. Additionally, the federal government has begun to send vaccines to pharmacies around the nation, a measure meant to make the two required dosages more accessible to low-income areas.

         Through executive action, Biden has also cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline, a structure that would have continued to damage the environment and run trample sacred Indigenous sites in Montana and South Dakota. He also reentered the Paris Climate Accords and begun to unravel some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

         Particularly in light of Biden’s calls for unity, Republicans have been critical of Biden for his reliance on executive orders thus far.

         “You can’t legislate by executive action,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor, “unless you are a dictator.”

         Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted, “30 executive orders and actions signed in only 3 days’ time. @POTUS, you can’t govern with a pen and a phone.”

         However, Republicans seemed far more lenient four years ago, when President Trump issued executive four years ago concerning many of the same issues.

         Democrats have encouraged Biden, both through legislation and executive action, to take bold steps in order to accomplish the party’s agenda, as the nation stares down an economic  recession and a public health crisis that has taken the lives of over 447,000 Americans.

         “Now is not the time to think small,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, in an interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. “It is the time to think big and address the terrible pain and suffering Americans are experiencing right now.”

         Molly Thompson 21’, President of the Thermolesion Society, encouraged students to stay politically active.

“In any new administration after a switch of party power, every aspect of policy change is on the table,” she began in an interview.

“SLU students, regardless of political party, need to continue following the news and speak for or against the policy changes that will impact them. Our generation will soon be the most powerful portion of the electorate, we need to use this power and vote in all federal, state, and local elections to decide the futures of our communities.”

The election is over; our need for political diligence, participation, and activism is not.