How can a new president restore a sense of normalcy at a time nothing seems normal?
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. takes the oath of office Wednesday amid crises that rival the worst in American history, earning comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt s inauguration in 1933 during the Great Depression and as storm clouds gathered over Europe. Or Abraham Lincoln s inauguration in 1861 as seven Southern states seceded and the Civil War loomed.
But challenges can also be opportunities. Those earlier times of catastrophe forged pivotal moments and presidencies now heralded among the nation s most consequential. He s going to enter office at perhaps a more precarious time for our nation than we ve seen in the past 150 years, said David Barker, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. That star-spangled banner still waves, but over, perhaps, a land of the cynical and a home of the scared.
USA TODAY
Most Americans are braced for violence at President-elect Joe Biden s inauguration Wednesday, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll finds, amid an overwhelming consensus that the nation s democracy has been weakened since the last president was sworn in four years ago.
The survey finds an anxious and embattled electorate, the divisions from the November election still raw. Two-thirds say the country is headed in the wrong direction, a double-digit jump since last month. It should be a happy time . but I am very nervous and frightened, says Sandi Bethune, 71, a Democratic retiree from Oakland, California, who voted for Biden.