Apparently Biden plans a flurry of executive actions on "Day One" to reverse actions of the Trump presidency. With a thinner majority margin in the House and the possibility that Republicans retain the Senate, it appears that he will exert a lot of quick change via executive order. That, of course, is his prerogative, and Trump used the same authority. But it will be interesting how far he plans to go and if many of his actions will alienate him from the very people with whom he pledged to work toward unity and healing. Proposed executive orders will cover a wide range of actions from climate control issues to gender identity issues to gun control. He wants to see the Equality Act signed into law, a law that would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under federal civil rights law. This will certainly be a contentious one, and it will be interesting to see how intrusive this law will be into private employment practices and religious institutions. Along with this will be orders impacting schools and how they deal with transgendered students in terms of access to sports, locker rooms, etc. These kinds of actions will again cause legal issues for religious institutions and cause no little push back and conflict. As far as the pandemic is concerned he is looking at the possibility of a nationwide mask order, although it is already questioned if he has the legal authority to enforce such a mandate. Many accept the wearing of masks as part of the way we deal with the spread of the virus. But a nationwide mandate could very well exacerbate concerns from the other side of the aisle of government overreach. Regarding energy policies, he wants to reduce extraction of oil and gas, like directing the Department of the Interior to halt oil and gas leases and fracking on federal lands. I know he wants to move in the direction of the "New Green Deal," and many accept the development of alternative energy sources. But there's tension here and a lot at stake economically. I hope he doesn't push it too far too fast. There is a lot of division between Republicans and Democrats on this issue.
Some of these orders may not have much impact or negative reactions. But, again, if he is serious about restoring unity and bringing healing to divisions, a flurry of actions designed to reverse as much of Trump's policies as possible in a short period of time is going to send the contrary signal that his priority is to erase anything Trump did - and by extension anything others supported that Trump did.
Personally, I would hope Biden will not step on the gas too hard in those first few weeks and months. I think many will stand behind him if he makes reasonable efforts to combat COVID-19. He campaigned on that heavily and polls showed it had a broad concern in the electorate. Although even here he must consider that not all Americans are on the same page. How heavy handed he is or appears to be could do more harm than good to his goal of bringing people together.
