Can America recover?

By Troy Stangarone

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was sitting in a windowless office in the Senate Dirksen Office Building unaware of what was happening in New York City. On a normal day I would have headed out shortly to go pick up Senator Robert G. Torricelli and bring him to the Senate, but instead, our office would soon be evacuated due to concern that the Capitol building could be a target.

After living through that day and having worked in a symbol of American democracy, it was painful to watch the U.S. Capitol ransacked on Jan. 6 not by terrorists or some foreign power, but rather my own fellow Americans at the instigation of the president.

It was something that I could not have imagined seeing in my lifetime. The images broadcast live to the world captured in a way nothing else could the damage that has been done to the U.S. and American democracy over the last four years.

But those same images symbolize the damage done not just to the U.S. and its democracy, but to the alliances that the U.S. carefully constructed after World War II, as well as the international institutions that have helped maintain peace and stability in much of the world for the last seven decades.

We are living with the fallout of the last four years every day. The lack of any real coordinated effort to deal with the pandemic means that countless individuals will die in the U.S. and abroad that need not have. China has become increasingly assertive in trying to pressure its neighbors. European nations are considering options for their own future, concerned that if Americans could elect one president who would threaten to leave NATO and wreck alliances, they could elect another.

South Korea has faced its own challenges. The U.S. forced Seoul to renegotiate the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), and tried to hold South Korea hostage for more money in the ongoing defense cost sharing talks. The willingness of the U.S. to meet directly with Kim Jong-un may have tempered some concerns though.

The treatment of friends and allies over the last few years does not represent the U.S., but rather a leader that far too many elected officials enabled and looked away from, as damage was done to U.S. institutions and alliances.

As Joe Biden seeks to turn the page on the last four years, the question is, can the U.S. recover? America in the past has had a strong capacity for self-correction. Its ability to do so this time has significant implications domestically and for U.S. allies.

Self-correction may be more difficult, however, as Biden faces perhaps more challenges than any other president in recent memory.

More than 400,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and that number is expected to reach 500,000 in a matter of weeks. Speeding up the production and distribution of vaccines to put the United States on a pathway that would enable a return to ordinary life is the most pressing task.

Parallel to that, Biden needs to address the economic challenges that the U.S. faces. The pandemic has caused the most significant economic decline in the U.S. since the Great Depression. When Biden was vice president, the policies of the Obama administration revived the economy, but left millions of Americans still struggling. Biden needs not just to restore the economy, but work to ensure that more people benefit from that recovery, and sooner, than occurred during the Great Recession.

On foreign policy, Biden's instincts are right that the U.S.' alliances need to be repaired. In his inaugural address he said, "We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example." However, restoring trust in the U.S. will take time.

Returning to the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization are good starts, but Biden will need to show that his administration can build coalitions within the international community to restore American leadership.

In the case of the U.S.-Korea alliance, the first step should be quickly to reach a new agreement on burden sharing. Reaching an understanding concerning collaboration on climate change, while having deeper discussions with Seoul on how to manage relations with China and North Korea, will both be important.

Healing the divisions in America, however, will be Biden's most important task. A third of Americans have been "fed lies," as even Senator Mitch McConnell recently acknowledged, and do not believe that Biden is a legitimate president. Returning America to an embrace of facts over opinion, as well as to a reembrace of civil discourse, will be necessary, but also something Biden cannot do alone.

In an earlier period of deep American divisions, Abraham Lincoln observed that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Those words are as true today as they were then. If Americans continue to look upon their neighbors as adversaries rather than partners, restoring American democracy and international standing will be more challenging than ever, and the images of the mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 will be more characteristic of foreshadowing than aberration.

Troy Stangarone (ts@keia.org) is the senior director of congressional affairs and trade at the Korea Economic Institute.