Editor’s Note: Freddie Reidy is a London-based freelance writer. He studied history and art history at the University of Kent, Canterbury, specializing in Russian history and international politics. The article reflects the views of the author and not necessarily those of CGTN.

It is a well-established routine for world leaders to focus on the international stage when the going gets tough on the home front. US President Joe Biden can therefore take the opportunity offered by the G7 summit hosted in the United Kingdom this week to take a welcome break from Washington’s inertia.

Due to COVID-19, Biden’s visit to the UK is his presidency’s first overseas trip and the G7 summit signifies another opportunity for him to signal that “America is back.” Indeed, some veterans of previous summits such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be delighted that America is back and not Donald Trump.

Biden arrived at RAF Mildenhall, an Air Force base where many U.S. service personnel are based, and immediately shifted gears to meet his foreign policy goals. The 46th US President told the assembled military that he intended to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin later in his European tour that “the United States will respond robustly and significantly” to any Russian aggression.

Biden’s speech at Mildenhall was greeted with both cheers and laughter, the kind of support and camaraderie that has eluded the president in recent months as a series of bills in Washington hit the buffers.

At the heart of Biden’s post-COVID-19 agenda is a massive $ 2.3 trillion infrastructure spending plan – a figure Republican lawmakers have balked at. The Biden administration’s goal has long been for the bill or, parts of the bill to be bipartisan, for talks with West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito to end in a stalemate effectively thwarting the effort. bipartite.

The legislative deadlock was not limited to the infrastructure bill, however. The Democratic “For the People” law, a voting reform bill, is also blocked by one of the Democrats, Senator Joe Manchin.

For Biden, the “For the People” act is just as embarrassing. The bill predates his tenure as president and, as such, is not viewed by Republicans in the bipartisan spirit with which Biden framed many of his political initiatives.

The finely balanced house is reflected in the finely balanced wings of the Democratic Party and Republicans are not in the mood to cede ground to embers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who was even willing to suggest that the political stance of her party colleague was “intertwined” with the interests of conservative pressure groups.

Writing in the New York Times, Christopher Caldwell deftly notes an important distinction in the fundamentals of the bill; namely that the Democrats do not offer “an extension of the voting rights but a relaxation of the voting rules”.

It is therefore the sanctity of democratic institutions that is at stake here; the very theme that Biden intends to communicate during his European tour. Therefore, the need for electoral reform to be seen as democratic with some consensus is vital. This is what makes Manchin’s statement that the bill “is not about middle ground, but the pursuit of partisan advantage” particularly troublesome.

Throughout the 2020 presidential election, the Biden campaign portrayed their man as someone who used to make deals on Capitol Hill, a point the White House press secretary said. Jen Psaki, was keen to make it en route to the UK, arguing that the US President “is quite familiar with the fact that this process takes a little patience and time, that there are going to be times when we are close. of death and then it comes back. “

With historic legislation in limbo, a chance to play from a position of strength on the international stage will be a welcome respite, but lessons on democracy will likely be far better received from a president who keeps his two-party election promises and does not. is not tempted to become dependent on executive orders.

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