Sometimes, the present-tense is too depressing to think about, and so why not delve into the record of Joe Biden as it’s being written? The question of “Was Joe Biden really that bad?” needs an answer, and that answer is/was/will be “Of course not!”
Biden’s economy was a miracle compared to what he inherited (which was near-collapse from CoVid), and unemployment hit a 56-year low. That is almost miraculous, and certainly better than anywhere else in the world was doing post-CoVid.
Some fat-mouthed Trumper is probably getting ready to type “Okay then, answer man, so why were his approval numbers so bad he had to drop out?”
Biden couldn’t catch a break because…
1. Liberal voters are rarely satisfied, they expect the world to move as fast as they do. [Generally, liberals are early adopters and get more easily frustrated waiting for change.] They don’t really seem to care that Biden didn’t have the Senate (Joe Manchin would do the least possible 10 times out of 10), he couldn’t single-handedly ram stuff through, and actually has accomplished quite a bit for his severely-restricted congressional threshold.
2. Trump voters were not reachable, and they were 1/3rd of the country. Biden wasn’t going to win them over if he got Victoria’s Secret models to have sex with them. Biden could send them a gold egg that he shit out himself, and they’d be like “Why didn’t he send two!? He’s the worst!”
—Biden finally ends the war in Afghanistan (America’s longest war), and does it a helluva lot better than our Vietnam withdrawal? “Doesn’t matter, 13 troops died, so Biden should be impeached.”
—Biden gets Democrats to single-handedly pass a third stimulus that not one Republican voted for and reopened a country (the stimulus was part of the American Recovery Act) near collapse from CoVid? “Doesn’t matter…inflation makes that money worthless anyway. Might as well be Zimbabwe bucks.”
—The Economy is great, vaccines were rolled out incredibly well, and people are able to go places again? “Biden is a tyrant for wanting vaccine mandates that would end CoVid. We need to forever be in CoVid-limbo! Fuck him!”
—Biden rebuilds our alliances (including the incredibly important anti-China alliance known as “the Quad”) and strengthens a commitment to NATO which Trump wanted to pull out of? “Who cares? Trump had better relations with Russia and North Korea…”
—Biden warns everyone on Earth that Russia is about to invade Ukraine, even though they didn’t really take it seriously? “Been hanging around with Obummer too long. More ‘chicken little’ crap from the Democrats, why can’t they focus on serious problems like Hillary Clinton’s emails?”
—Russia commits the largest invasion since WWII and Biden is able to organize devastating worldwide sanctions that crater their kleptocratic economy, tries everything he can think of to help Zelenskyy (money, weapons, credible intelligence), hurt Russia in 100 ways without deploying American troops, turn Russia into a pariah state in the middle of an embarrassingly-bad invasion, and reestablish the need for American leadership abroad? “He should be doing more.” “Like what?” “Just…more…”
—Biden is the first President in forever to not only talk about infrastructure, but actually get it through congress with actual Republican votes? “Maybe I like my bridges falling down, a-hole!”
He was able to do a whole lot with an uncooperative congress, the worst pandemic in a century, the biggest threat to the planet in 80 years (an unhinged Putin’s nuclear threats), and—yes—”the Former Guy” trying to stage a fucking coup that almost prevented him from even taking office.
I don’t think a President since Abraham Lincoln has inherited such a political mess (Trump is first POTUS in history to want the election overturned, actively worked to decertify it, organized a mob to ransack the Capitol, demanded recounts months after his successor took office, still won’t accept the result, and is so emboldened he’s still out there trying to stage a coup). And Biden has to get things through a Senate he can’t count on, a citizenry this combative (“get vaccinated? Make me! Life-saving jerk!”), and a globe filled with the threat of nuclear war? Hell no, he was not “that bad.”