'Sleepy Joe' may be exactly the president America needs right now

National Post, 06 November 2020

Biden ran a somnolent campaign. Trump thought that was a bug. It was actually a feature.

Presuming that Joe Biden will prevail in the election, American voters deserve praise for managing, with surgical precision, to remove a malignancy with minimal damage to the body politic.

I wrote four years ago that Donald Trump’s mad genius was to apply the successful celebrity style of Gorgeous George, Muhammad Ali, professional wrestling and reality television to electoral politics. That was, and remains, true, but it also, as president George W. Bush was wont to say, “misunderestimated” him.

Trump put legitimate and significant policy changes on the table and shifted conservative politics from a long-term losing proposition to a long-term winning proposition. For that, both his country and his party will thank him, even as there is relief that he will now depart, loudly or quietly. (Is there any doubt about which he will choose?)

Some 145 million voters managed to achieve five remarkable results simultaneously.

First, a shift from exhausting outrage in the White House to tranquillity and restraint. Second, to check radical initiatives on the other side, setting up a political landscape perfectly suited to Biden. Third, to retain the heart of “Trumpism” without Trump, namely a concern for the beleaguered working class. Fourth, to move toward a less racially divisive politics. Fifth, to rebalance presidential politics toward a competitive future.

It is not possible to entirely separate the Trump agenda from the man himself, but American voters did the best they could.

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