Biden Election Marks American Return to the Global Community
Since the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the United States, I have received congratulatory calls and messages from friends around the world. Stretching from the Balkans in Europe: Tirana, Albania, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Podgorica, Montenegro, Zagreb, Croatia, Belgrade, Serbia, to our Canadian neighbors in Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver and even from Kathmandu, Nepal and Aarhus, Denmark and a dear friend from Belgrade, via Baghdad.
The U.S. deeply matters to people around the world who are increasingly endangered as democracy is in decline globally: journalists, human rights defenders, academics, civil society groups advancing small “d” democratic change, government accountability and transparency. While Americans have been sitting on their edge of their seats during the counting of the votes, so has the world. This is why church bells were ringing in Paris in response to the election of Joseph Biden, issuing in a collective sigh of relief around the world, celebrated by spontaneous street demonstrations reminiscent of marking the end of WWII when the world community last defeated fascism.
Indeed, America’s aspiring autocrat in the White House has been trounced in a popular vote that looks to exceed more than 75 million, beating Trump more than 4 million and counting at the moment.
