Biden will turn the catastrophe into a blessing

America’s coloured people like the famous “Old black Joe” who picked cotton for centuries, yesterday were given the blessing and Beatitude virtues of picking the most powerful man in the United states if not the world.

Democratic Party Contender and former Vice President Joe Biden won the crucial Presidential Election with a historic personal vote of more than four million-the highest by any president, and in an ironic way the key State that took him to victory was Georgia, a Republican Party stronghold for the past four decades.  

 Till about 7pm (Sri Lankan time) yesterday the veteran, well-mannered and widely respected politician Joe Biden’s Electoral College tally stood at 253 while incumbent President Donald Trump’s tally was 213. The magic number is 270 Electoral College votes because there are 538 members in it and it names the President in terms of the U.S Constitution. The State of Georgia took Mr. Biden to the required majority. With about four more states including Pennsylvania still not reporting their final results, most independent analysts said Mr. Biden was likely to get about 300 Electoral College votes.  

Yet and not surprisingly current President Donald Trump was deranged over the defeat. On Wednsday, Mr. Trump claimed he had won the election but made a wild allegation that it was stolen from him through a counting fraud.On Thursday, he launched another diabolical attack. He was so much in shambles mentally and physically that he was not aware Georgia was controlled by the Republican Party.   

It is a spiritual truth that we will pay a price for what we do or fail to do. Much in keeping with that truth the main factor that led to Mr.Trump’s defeat was his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic which in the past few days has been killing or infecting thousands of Americans every day. The death toll there now is about 240,000 and the number infected about one million. It is reported that in January this year Mr. Trump had been told that the Covid-19 pandemic would have deadly consequences if precautions were not taken. Mr.Trump ignored the warning.

Instead of taking the warning and ordering preventive measures in the US, Mr. Trump chose to ignore it and publicly said it would pass away in a month or two like the influenza virus which regularly hits every country.   
Most independent analysts say that Mr. Trump in character is largely “I or ego-centred”. He may listen to advisors but often does what he wants whether it is good or bad for the people. That is why in most democratic countries where the people are sovereign and where there are checks and balances, most leaders consider Mr.Trump as a dangerously unpredictable leader, a pathological liar, morally considered to be by many as a womanizer if not a cad as he acted in the case of the well-known sex worker Stormy Daniels and is alleged to have paid her millions of dollars to cover up the scandal. Yesterday he paid the heavy price for it— he has to give up the most powerful post in the world. Mysteriuosly Mr.Trumps Last Post was the early postal voting system which he vehemently opposed. Eventually Mr.Biden got most of his votes through the postal voting system though Mr.Trump is known to have directed the U.S Postmaster general to delay or disrupt the process.   

According to science and medical experts, when Mr. Trump received the Covid-19 warning he could have taken some practical steps to control it, just as most other countries have done. The preventive measures include wearing a face mask, in public maintaining physical space of three to six feet, washing hands regularly with soap and using detergents wherever needed or in places where Covid-19 afflicted people are found. But Mr.Trump did not wear a face mask and did not order, encourage or request his supporters to wear masks. Nor did he tell them to maintain the physical space , wash hands regularly with soap and water or use detergent. He only wore a Sunday mask to cover up all his selfishness, wickedness or madness and that is probably why he was supported by most members of Christian evangelical churches. 

 
Hopefully and thankfully the newly elected Joe Biden and his vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris—the first coloured woman to be elected as a vice president—will be feet-washing, servant leaders of the people. Hopefully, the meek and humble Mr. Biden will give leadership to the world and bring about international unity to bring under control the worst pandemic in living memory as Mr. Biden said Mr.Trump himself was the virus and that was why the people threw him out.   

We hope Mr.Biden will also give visionary leadership to end the white supremacist domination and plunder of the Third World’s wealth and resources. Thankfully, he will also bring about racial equality, poverty alleviation and thereby social justice not only for America but for the whole world. Thus, as the scriptures say, the current catastrophe will be turned into a blessing. While the mighty shall be cast from their thrones and the meek shall be raised to rule the world.