Reading dispatches from the mainstream news organizations of America will tell you that we as a nation have just undergone a radical shift. Donald Trump, the unhinged terror, is no more, and Joe Biden has returned to restore decency and normalcy to the Oval Office. Like a liberated people, we have freed ourselves of a mad tyrant who threatened to ruin our long-running democratic experiment.

Most of this is true. Trump was a vehicle for revanchist forces, empowering billionaires, enabling racists, and denying the existence of climate change. He incited a deadly riot. Biden will do none of these things. Already we are beginning to see tangible change, including the ending of the Muslim ban and the canceling of the Keystone XL pipeline. If Biden’s promised $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal becomes law, it will deliver much-needed relief to beleaguered cities and states as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on.

But there has been no dramatic departure from Trump when it comes to unwinding America’s war machine abroad. While Trump was less hawkish than others in his party — despite welcoming the warmongering lunatic John Bolton into his inner sanctum — he did nothing to alter a surveillance state apparatus and military-industrial complex that has survived four different presidents.