Elections have consequences, as they say. And an immediate consequence of Joe Biden's election to the White House is the rollback of some of ex-President Donald Trump's most damaging policies regarding immigration, the environment and more, while tackling the pandemic in ways Trump should have done long ago.

On his first day in office Wednesday, Biden signed 17 executive orders — presidential directives that don't require congressional approval. The trend toward presidents governing via executive order, which has been expanded by both parties in recent years, is an issue worthy of debate. But having inherited a multi-faceted mess, much of it created by Trump's executive orders, Biden could hardly be expected to sheathe his pen.

Unlike his predecessor, Biden has made clear he understands the gravity of the worst public health crisis in a century. He is returning the U.S. to the World Health Organization, after the Trump administration withdrew membership and funding last year. Biden also signed a mask mandate on all federal property, setting the example the nation should have seen months ago. And he has created an official post of "COVID-19 response coordinator," to report directly to the president, driving home the singular importance of this issue. Addressing the pandemic-related economic crisis, Biden is extending moratoriums on evictions and federal student loan payments.

On immigration, Biden has undone Trump's mean-spirited sabotage of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides protection from deportation for undocumented immigrants brought here as children. Biden also ended the travel ban from predominantly Muslim countries, a policy that was always tinged with religious bigotry. And he has halted work on Trump's ridiculous border wall.

On the environment — an issue Trump approached with all the subtlety of an arsonist — Biden had his work cut out for him. He has rescinded Trump's shortsighted withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement on global warming, reversed Trump's attempt to severely reduce the size of several national land monuments, reinstated rational vehicle emissions standards, and revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit that would send some of Canada's dirtiest oil onto the U.S.

Biden shut down the Trump administration's 1776 Commission calling for so-called "patriotic education," which had sought to downplay the evils of slavery in history. He also immediately halted his predecessor's disgraceful binge of executions of federal inmates.

There will be plenty of time to debate Biden's broader policy initiatives — including two major legislative measures he has sent to Congress regarding coronavirus relief and immigration — and not all of his agenda will be perfect. But in laying out a first-day raft of priorities that begin to bring sanity and decency back to government, Biden has dramatically changed the tone of leadership so the nation can focus on real issues, not ego-driven tweets.

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