Joe Biden’s ‘Mandela moment’

After he was released from prison, where he had been kept for 27 years, Nelson Mandela, then over 70 years old, became the leader of a nation in great turmoil and transition. He could have exacted a pound of flesh on his own behalf, as well as on behalf of the generations of South Africans who suffered under the inhumane system of apartheid. Instead he chose another path — one of healing — bringing together his country, rather than allowing it to fall apart along an unworkable racial divide. 

While President-elect Joe Biden is not facing anything as profound as did Mandela, he is looking at a nation that is divided and at war with itself. He has won more votes than any U.S. president in history. Unfortunately, he will inherit an extremely polarized political and social landscape.  The past four years have been characterized by division and anger, not defined by policy but fueled by the basest of political instincts. 

The United States is at a true crossroads. The pandemic appears to be burgeoning; daily infection rates, deaths and COVID-19 patient hospitalizations have been increasing. Yet, even regarding the pandemic there is a divide among Americans over how to respond to this devastating disease.  Something as simple as wearing a face mask, which is proven to cut down on infections and thereby save lives, is seen by some as a sign of weakness and by others as a symbol of patriotism. 

At the same time, and not unrelated, the economy is cratering. Wall Street aside, the prognosis for ordinary Americans is not good. Food lines have lengthened. Unemployment is frighteningly high. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post writes that “the U.S. economy has a greater jobs deficit than was the case at the very worst point of every previous post-war recession, including the Great Recession.”  

The pandemic is also reshaping the world. It has surged again in Europe, where the New York Times reports that “more Europeans are seriously ill with the coronavirus than ever before, new hospital data for 21 countries shows, surpassing the worst days in the spring and threatening to overwhelm stretched hospitals and exhausted medical workers.” The prognosis for the global economy is dismal. IMF leadership estimates that “the severity and speed of the declines in economic output, employment, and consumption during the Great Lockdown were far greater than at the onset of the Great Depression.” 

The World Bank (WBG) and other international organizations are struggling to keep up with the needs of those who have been hit hard by the pandemic. The WBG has estimated that “COVID-19 will push 71 million into extreme poverty, measured at the international poverty line of $1.90 per day. With the downside scenario, this increases to 100 million.”

It is tough to find hope at such a difficult and complicated time. Fortunately, the American people are being offered a “Mandela moment” of hope and healing. The United States is not the South Africa of Nelson Mandela, and the Mandela analogy for Joe Biden may not fit exactly.  But there are similarities. America is struggling profoundly, and it needs a leader — Joe Biden — who has said repeatedly that he will not be the president of red or blue states but of all the states, and one who will work for all Americans whether they voted for him or not. 

The brutal irony of the pandemic is that it may have moved the U.S. to remove a leader who was tearing the country apart, and now provides an opportunity for the country to pull together under the leadership of a person who has the ability — and the heart — to do the job and face a crisis as great as any in the country’s history. 

Seamus Heaney famously wrote, as Joe Biden quoted: “Once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.” It is in the interest of the United States and the world to give the president-elect full support, so that he can seize this Mandela-like moment and provide us all a promising future.

William C. Danvers is an adjunct professor at George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. He formerly was a World Bank Group Special Representative for International Relations, and previously worked on national security issues for nearly four decades in the executive branch, on Capitol Hill, for international organizations and the private sector.