Joe Biden Owes You Nothing
We are exactly five weeks from the inauguration.
This means we have a calm, sensible presidential administration from now until 11:59 AM on Monday, January 20th, 2025. Whether it's South Korea dealing with martial law and a subsequent presidential impeachment or the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Biden administration is still the adults in the room, going about their day in a professional manner that has been the hallmark of this administration over the past four years. No drama. No public airing of grievances. Just simple, gritty governance whose lack of incompetence and in-fighting provided no fodder for the Beltway media that was so desperate for chaos. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of the administration are simply doing the jobs they were asked to do and will continue to do until their final moments.
And yet, for many, that won't be enough.
Because we're already seeing a bunch of sofa warriors suddenly become presidential advisors. Suddenly, after sitting on the sidelines for 4 years and doing next to nothing to support Democrats, a wave of activists now feel entitled to have their pet policy positions enacted at the very last moment. From those who want Joe Biden to clear all 40 prisoners off death row to those who want Joe Biden to cancel all student loan debt, there now is a growing subset of voices on the left who feel that they know best how Joe Biden should best maximize his final five weeks in office. Despite Biden having commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals this past week and having reopened two paths for student loan forgiveness this month, there remains a group of loud voices on the left who are insisting that Joe Biden is failing the American people. To them, I have one simple message:
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. doesn't owe you a damn thing.
Simple as that. Joe Biden poured out his heart and soul into this country for four years doing everything in his power to bring the country back from the brink of disaster. He prioritized public health and safety and managed to miraculously vaccinate 70% of the country. He created jobs, 16 million of them, and helped the United States reach a 50-year low in the unemployment rate. Manufacturing jobs are up thanks largely to the Bipartisan Infrastruture Law, which has added 60,000 projects and counting. Union membership is up. Nearly 20 million new small business applications were submitted since the pandemic. The supply chain backlog is fixed. And the global issue of inflation was addressed through legislation, giving the United States the world's best recovery, a testament to the vision and foresight of the Biden administration.
Despite all this, 7 million "Democrats" sat home on Election Day, refusing to vote for Kamala Harris. It's now up to Joe Biden and his administration to figure out how to best preserve what little we have of our democracy left. That includes the 1,500 commuted sentences that we've already mentioned. That also includes the continued work of the Senate to appoint federal judges, including a record number of judges of color. While the media already lost its collective mind over the Hunter Biden pardon, there can be no doubt that Joe Biden will be looking into additional clemency opportunities as well as delving into critical land conservation and AI regulation. What the administration will not be doing is engaging in any temporary, half-assed executive orders that will inevitably be overturned by our right-wing Supreme Court. Giving false hope to various segments of the population is not something Democrats should ever consider, no matter how "right" it might feel in the moment.
Those current criticizing the administration are not serious people. Hell, they aren't even Democrats. Most of them are Rand Paul libertarians who have voted for Bernie, Trump, and third party candidates these past 3 elections. But they are loud on social media. And as we've seen over the past few years, the loud ones are easily amplified on social media platforms run by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Their contrarian views are amplified. We've already seen Congressman Ro Khanna's insist that we should work with the incoming administration. Democratic fundraiser Lindy Li has gone on a media tour praising Pete Hegseth and criticizing the Harris campaign. Any time Democrats lose a presidential election, there exists a vacuum where all of a sudden we have thousands of policy experts who know exactly what the outgoing president should be doing. None of them have been part of an administration and none of them truly understand the intracicies of the decisions that Joe Biden and his team will be making these final 35 days.
That is what these armchair activists continue to ignore. Our government is (at least for the moment) run by individuals who understand how government works. They know that you cannot issue executive orders on a whim. They know the laws that will be challenged and eventually overturned by a 6-3 conservative supreme court. They know the extent to which the executive branch can act autonomously of the other two branches. Suffice to say, they have a lot more knowledge of what is actually possible versus what feels good in the moment. Even if these activists were to get their way, we all know that it will never be enough for them. They exist solely to criticize the Democratic Party and nothing the party does will ever satisfy them. It's not that they don't understand how government works; it's that they do understand but simply want a left-wing dictator as one of their own in the position of power.
When that doesn't happen, they bitch and moan. They will show themselves plentifully these final 5 weeks. But in the long run, they don't matter. These people are left-wing trolls, who live to criticize the Democratic Party. No matter what Joe Biden does, or doesn't do, it will never be good enough for them. These are the same people who criticize Democrats for not having passed universal health care or including the public option as if there weren't massive internal party politics to navigate at the time. They always let the perfect be the enemy of good no matter how life-altering the legislation can be. These are people who would outrightly reject the entire ACA because it did not go far enough. Meanwhile, the ACA provided health insurance to 21 million Americans in 2024 alone proving that even a watered-down bill can make a huge difference for millions of our most vulnerable citizens. These 21 million Americans certainly don't blame the Democratic Party for their work to reform the healthcare system in this country.
Be on the lookout for these saboteurs these next 5 weeks. They will continue to show themselves under the guise of concern for the Democratic Party. But they are concern trolling. They are pretending like Joe Biden has unlimited authority. But we know better. We know the constraints of the Executive Branch and we know the limitations faced with a right-wing Supreme Court. For every cry of "Joe Biden needs to do X!" ask yourself if that is even possible. If the answer is no, then know that the person making that cry is not a serious person and is acting that way because they have another agenda. They make a living by criticizing Democrats. It's their MO. So while they may seem to be concerned about this issue or that, know that it is one big ruse. The only thing they want to do is continue to sow discord within the Democratic Party.
Something that Joe Biden knows all too well.