After what feels like a lifetime of waiting to see who won the 2020 presidential election, it has finally been called: Biden won.
As we go into these next few months of transition not only to a new president, but to a new party majority. Here’s what we need to know about this change.
Biden has already started assembling a coronavirus task force and start pushing legislation and a plan toward vaccination. These steps could point to national mask mandates, additional stimulus packages and, if Europe is any indication to what is to come, a second national lockdown.
Biden has also announced his plans for his first 100 days in office, which includes corporate tax cuts, climate change legislation and changes to immigration and racial equity legislation.
While there is a slew of changes Biden has announced, it is important to think about how these changes will affect us. While most tax and economic legislation doesn’t affect most college students, immigration policies creating a pathway to citizenship and the end of construction on the border wall affect many of our students, as over 16% of the student population is hispanic and many more have friends and family near the border.
The ACU community has been a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter, and several groups have been put in place this semester to try and ease racial tensions and increase equality on campus.
Biden’s 100 day plan includes instituting a national police oversight commission and enacting criminal justice reform in order to move closer to repairing racial relations in the United States. While Biden has not expressed intentions to abolish or defund police programs, he has expressed intentions to better racial relations through criminal justice reform and additional legislation, making him a good middle ground for the topic.
However, Biden has one plan that will affect every single one of us: debt relief. As part of a COVID-19 relief package, Biden has called for at least $10,000 in student loan debt to be canceled for all Americans.
In addition, he plans to help push the College for All Act, which would make tuition at private colleges and universities as well as HBCUs and MSIs free to families making under $125,000 per year. While that would not include tuition at ACU, undoubtedly tuition would go down as most other colleges lower tuition due to most getting tuition for free through governmental programs.
Through all these changes, it is even more important than ever that we remain peaceful and have respectful and civilized conversations. While there have been many protests in the wake of the election being called, most have been peaceful. Looking into the rest of the year and preparing for the Biden presidency it is important that we keep up with that trend. It seems most people have reached a consensus: what’s done is done.
While there is much debate over what will happen with Trump’s voter fraud disputes and likely voter recounts, we have to remain united, moving forward with peaceful and respectful discourse. We should follow in Michigan’s footsteps, and pray over each other even when we disagree.
