Rewind to the presidential election of 1876:

“Tilden or blood!” Cried Democrats when their presidential candidate Samuel Tilden lost to his Republican opponent Rutherford Hayes under a heavy dark cloud of alleged fraud and corruption. Guess what? Calm reigned eventually. Calm will reign eventually this time, too.

As things stand, a Biden presidency will be facing a likely divided US Congress, a certainly Republican majority at the state level, and a conservative-leaning US Supreme Court. The much-hyped Democratic “blue wave” did not materialize. So, at least for now, forget about all the sound and fury of the radical left whose agenda won’t fly in the Main Street anyway. When the dust settles, it will still be a 50/50 America, with or without Trump. In such an America, the two major parties can only hope—and strive—for a paper-thin margin of victory in any given presidential election, understanding that the mandate does not necessarily come from popularity, thanks to the Electoral College system.

Going forward, America can do without Trump or Biden. America, however, cannot do without American ingenuity. Neither Trump nor Biden, in my judgement, can truly answer the call for American ingenuity the way Ronald Reagan did. In the face of stagflation, Reagan boldly cut capital gains tax to release an explosive entrepreneurial energy among the Americans. As if on cue, microchip came along and the rest is history. 

But Reaganomics also sowed the seeds of globalization. As Chicago’s oral historian Studs Terkel documented, the Great Lakes-based heavy industries were sacrificed on the altar of Wall Street. The succeeding administrations only made it worse. Not Trump’s, though. Populist Trump, however, has not really been able to reverse the misfortune of the working classes particularly during the pandemic; never mind that he continues to enjoy their solid support. His Reaganite tax cut is good, but not good enough to be a Reaganite game changer.

Biden? Don’t hold your breath.

As a nation of invention, America needs world-shaking technological breakthrough every generation. Microchip, however advanced, was the answer to the past generation’s call. This generation—our generation—calls for a different stroke of technological genius. It could be quantum computing. It could be a medical-biological revolution induced by this pandemic. It could be anything above and beyond the parameters of today’s scientific research. Every great prize is up for grabs.

In the next presidential election cycle, would someone pick up the idea of American ingenuity and run with it?

——Lingyang Jiang