Quite a difference between two chilly Wednesdays in January: Under a crystalline Inauguration Day sky and a bunting-draped Capitol, the Marine Band welcomed the 46th President into office with a procession of fanfares — in the same spot that a mob answering the call of the 45th had ransacked the building two weeks earlier to try to stop this transfer of power.

There was no mention of Donald J. Trump, the departed and deplatformed commander in chief who flew out of town early in the morning as the first President in 152 years to refuse to attend the swearing-in of his successor.

Whether or not related to the former President’s absence, a bipartisan lightness seemed to prevail across the stage. Snow flurries gave way to sun and an aura distinctly serene. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, and now former Vice- President Mike Pence — both close allies of Trump who broke bitterly with him in his final days — were seen cracking grins, even chuckling with their counterparts in the opposing party.

Supreme Court justices greeted former Presidents with elbow bumps and waved to masked members of Congress from several feet away, a literal separation of powers mandated by the pandemic. The rampage on January 6 had brought on uniformed troops clustered in all directions across a Capitol complex otherwise abandoned by civilians. Still, the inauguration felt like a friendly gathering, a small step towards President Biden’s elusive promise of national unity.

“This is a great nation. We are good people,” Biden said, speaking in simple goals, sounding almost plaintive at times in his 21-minute address. “We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbours.” He called upon a nation of citizens to renew its vows of dignity, respect and common purpose.

“We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature,” Biden said.

Biden’s words did not so much ring triumphant as they conjured a sense of respite. The centre had held and the system had survived, at least this time.

“On this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the capital’s very foundation,” the new President said, “we come together as one nation under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

Shorter version: “Phew.”

New York Times News Service