Evaluating Biden So Far
I distinctly remember warning people that if then Vice President Biden was victorious, he was going to have a monumental repair job that would make President Obama’s beginning look easy.
Since then, President Biden has had to deal with an attempted coup, a raging pandemic (along with a pandemic-induced economic crisis), rising inflation, the largest land war in Europe since the Second World War, a hostile Supreme Court, and one of the two major political parties descending more and more into open fascism.
Through all of this, President Biden has had to work with a Democratic Party that has a parasite inside of it that is more prepared to work with fascists than anyone else. I am, of course, talking about the alt-left—also known as Bernie Bros and the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) and embodied best in the Squad.
Let’s not forget that Biden has also had to get a Democratic Senate Caucus that includes Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bernie Sanders of Vermont to get along with each other—along with whatever weird goals Senator Sinema of Arizona has that particular day.
Also, it is important to remember that in the House, President Biden has been given headaches by moderate Democrats like Representative Josh Gottheimer of the New Jersey 5th in his battles to get lower taxes for his constituents with Senator Manchin.
I could also mention that when some Democrats from vulnerable districts have legitimate complaints about the Squad or other Democrats, they lash out in the worst way possible by blowing up legislation or introducing economic policies that are popular with no one. Though to be fair, the far left is just as, if not more, guilty of this.
I still remember what happened with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and how it played a critical role in costing Democrats everything in Virginia and almost everything in New Jersey.
The point of all of the above is that President Biden, I would argue, has in some ways had an even harder start than President Obama did.
Biden’s Presidency So Far
President Biden has passed an impressive amount of big legislative items so far in his presidency.President Biden started out by passing the American Rescue Plan Act, and he oversaw the successful distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.
Personally, I got my shots early because at the time, I was working for Ramsey County as a Shelter Wellness Assistant to help homeless people who showed symptoms of COVID-19, were exposed, or had tested positive to have a safe and secure place to stay.
Keep in mind that President Biden passed all of the following legislation with a razor-thin majority in the House and a 50-50 Senate, including three senators prepared to blow things up for petty reasons.
The American Rescue Plan Act was far from the only piece of consequential legislation he managed to push through with a 50-50 Senate and a razor-thin House majority. He also signed into law legislation to revamp the US Post Office, the first gun control legislation in decades, and legislation designed to secure microchip production; and he provided aid to veterans harmed by burn pits.
Oh, and let’s not forget that President Biden passed the largest infrastructure bill in American history, and he passed the largest expansion of the social safety net in decades (that is also the largest climate bill in American history).
But wait, there’s more!
President Biden has worked overtime to shape the Federal Judiciary after the Trump administration vandalized it with incompetence and racism. President Biden’s appointees have been historic numbers of women and people of color (all of whom without question have earned their spot), not to mention he has been working overtime to fill in the Federal Judiciary.
Under President Biden, our alliances have been rebuilt. While the lion’s share of the credit must go to the people of Ukraine for fighting the Russian war machine to a standstill, President Biden has led the world in first warning about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and then the world’s economic sanctions that have wounded the Russian war machine.
To be fair, President Biden’s administration has not been without setbacks. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic doing severe damage to supply chains, inflation has hit the world quite hard (in fact, it already caused former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to lose power in May of this year, along with the Coalition taking quite a beating). Despite the fact there was not a lot that could be done about inflation, much of the public blamed President Biden and Democrats more broadly. This problem was made even worse by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which played havoc with oil prices.
Americans get grumpy when gas prices rise, and they tend to take it out on whoever happens to be in power.
In addition, the Democratic Caucus in Congress has seen some damaging infighting, not just between moderates and progressives, but within both factions of Democrats as well. Both moderate and progressive Democrats have done serious damage to President Biden on various occasions. One point of criticism I do have of President Biden is that I don’t think he took an active enough role in getting these factions of Democrats to stop fighting, especially after the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan (when the infighting seemed to intensify).
As a result of this infighting, several vital pieces of legislation seemed dead in the water, causing President Biden’s approval rating to plunge even further. Only the passage of the Inflation Control Act salvaged some of the Build Back Better bill.
I would argue that the biggest setback of President Biden’s administration was the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover caused President Biden’s approval ratings to plunge rapidly.
Truth be told, I was and still am horrified with how badly things went. I can’t blame American veterans of that war who feel intense anger, shame, guilt, and even alienation for the Afghan allies left to the mercy of the Taliban and who feel their entire service was wasted.
But at the same time, there were no good options when it came to Afghanistan, and people who demanded that there be a withdrawal and that the withdrawal be painless and consequence free were at best delusional and at worst actively looking for a reason to attack President Biden. At least people who demanded American forces stay in Afghanistan were consistent.
I think the American people were lying to themselves about the consequences of leaving the Afghan government behind, considering how corrupt and incompetent it proved to be. Not to mention that the Trump administration made a horrifying deal with the Taliban to release 5,000 of their terrorists and leave the country.
But at the end of the day, it was still President Biden’s decision to keep with the deal and withdraw from Afghanistan.
As you can see, I still have conflicting views about President Biden’s decision here. The best answer I can give is that there was not going to be a happy ending no matter what, the people of Afghanistan are still in a no-win situation, and American honor has been tarnished by another failed war.
But overall, I have to give President Biden high marks for dealing with a string of bad situations that have sunk other presidents.
Trump inherited a country in a relatively solid situation and ran it into the ground. President Biden inherited a country facing multiple crises at once and managed to get it back into working order. The Justice Department is back in working order, as is much of the federal government.
If anyone remembers the damage Trump did to the federal government, that is quite an achievement.
Despite some inflation still remaining, it is beginning to cool down, as have gas prices. Unemployment is at historic lows, and wages are up.
Just as important, President Biden helped more Americans to sleep at night thanks to not making policy via Twitter at one o’clock in the morning. He has enabled us to watch a movie without three executive orders and a constitutional crisis of his making taking place by the time the credits roll.
Besides being strategic malpractice, not running Biden for a second term means we are losing a president who knows how to operate in extremely unfavorable circumstances.
To sum it up, I am quite impressed with how President Biden has been doing considering just how poor of a hand he has been dealt, and I would definitely support him for a second term.
Stay frosty everyone.