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President Joe Biden’s administration will distance itself from many of the controversial policies of former President Donald Trump’s administration. Nonetheless, the country should still expect the Biden administration to attempt to unite the country despite the intense polarization following the Trump era.

The new administration’s decisions will impact college students across the United States. From talks of delaying or canceling student loan payments to issuing national COVID-19 guidelines for schools and colleges, Biden is making moves that his predecessor refused to. These policies will assist the 70% of college students who graduate with significant student loans and the college campuses across the country — including Syracuse University — that struggled to contain COVID-19 in the fall. Biden’s proposals were created to combat these issues and will positively affect tens of millions of people.

In Biden’s first three days in office, he signed a record 30 executive orders and actions. These orders were focused on issues such as COVID-19, climate change and immigration, indicating that the administration would prioritize them moving forward. The American people should expect a greater effort to curb the problems of tomorrow, whether that’s natural disasters as a result of climate change, the next pandemic or the growing threat of hostile cyber attacks on our country.

Biden has stated that his No. 1 priority is beating the COVID-19 crisis and reopening the economy. He laid out The Biden Plan for an Effective Re-Opening that Jumpstarts the Economy, which is an eight-step plan to ensure a safe reopening that will help foster an economy that benefits all Americans. The president also created an ambitious goal of vaccinating 100 million people in his first 100 days in office — that equates to 30% of the U.S. population, a number that would drastically curb the raging virus.

In terms of leadership tactics, Biden has already taken a much different approach from that of Trump. Biden ran on the premise of uniting the country and lowering the temperature of political tensions before they reach a boiling point. Looking at the two leaders’ reactions to the result of the 2020 presidential election gives a good insight into their leadership tactics. 

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again,” Biden said during his election victory speech. “To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies.” 

Looking forward, Americans should expect the reckless rhetoric of Trump to fade and the hopeful, uniting rhetoric of Reagan, Clinton and Obama to return under Biden. 

The Biden administration plans to make progress on many issues currently plaguing our country, including COVID-19, climate change and immigration. Americans should expect significant progress to come their way within the next four years. 

Nathan Fenningdorf is a sophomore political science major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at nlfennin@syr.edu.

Published on February 10, 2021 at 9:36 pm

Contact Nathan: nlfennin@syr.edu