138 – MY 1st YEAR GRADE FOR JOE BIDEN – A “C” (An Editorial Opinion)

The best analogy I can come up with for Biden’s first year as President is the Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Both men are incredibly decent individuals who unfortunately are also examples that while decency is absolutely required of any President (Trump is the shining example of what happens when that is nonexistent.) – it is nowhere near enough.

In Biden’s case, that has also been exacerbated by his age.

What follows is my analysis of Biden’s successes and failures as they relate to the major issues that his Administration, and this country, have faced in the past year.

Covid

You can nitpick about a number of things that Biden has said regarding Covid.  He was optimistic that Covid would be able to be brought under control, certainly by this, the second year of his Presidency.  Being optimistic is classic Biden, to a fault.  Look no further than phantom Republican collegiality or Manchin and Sinema support as clear evidence of the colossal naiveté and folly of that thinking.

So Biden is guilty of being overly optimistic.

But just for a moment …

• Contrast that with Trump’s egotistical, irrational and ultimately deadly denial that Covid would be any kind of problem at all. 
• Contrast that with Trump’s refusal to champion the use of every possible mitigation effort of Covid prior to the development of a vaccine.
• Contrast that with Trump and his sycophantic Republican Governors who stood in the way at every turn with almost everything that might have helped at least slow down the spread of the virus.  That very likely needlessly cost hundreds of thousands of American lives in the process.
• Contrast that with the absolute disgrace that has been the successful effort to turn getting vaccinated into a political issue.

So fault Biden if you must for not anticipating Omicron, for not being able to get Covid testing available as soon as he had hoped, and for not being able to even get any type of vaccine mandate through a conservative Supreme Court.

But don’t even THINK of comparing Biden’s response to Covid with everything that Trump and the Republicans have criminally failed to do.

Afghanistan

I wish Biden would just stop telling us that war is Hell and that getting out of Afghanistan was always going to be messy.  With the exception of the conservative media, everyone knows that is true.  But Biden has yet to really admit that it was so much more difficult than what he and his advisors had expected. 

They apparently did not anticipate that the Taliban would, without any resistance whatsoever, retake the country and completely retake the Afghan capital, with the exception of the airport, within less than a week.  He should admit their failure to anticipate that.

Biden should say that he absolutely regrets any loss of life that resulted, but let’s not forget that those lives were lost because of Al-Qaeda, most likely those released from prison without any opposition from the Afghan military.

The Economy

Please, Joe, stop touting the number of jobs created in the past year.  We just came out of the worst economic standstill and unemployment this country has almost ever experienced.  OF COURSE a lot of jobs have returned. There was nowhere to go but up.

Don’t deny or minimize inflation.  Emphasize instead that you are confident it will be temporary and that inflation and all of the supply chain disruptions are a completely unfortunate but logical progression out of the terrible Covid economy that we just experienced.

Voting Rights & Build Back Better Legislation  

I wish he would just admit what I assume to be the case – that he completely misjudged the capacity of the Republican Party to get beyond Trump and to show any allegiance to the Constitution.

He also completely misjudged both Manchin and Sinema.  It is obvious now, as it has been almost since he took office, that those two were never going to support his major initiatives.  They are so deep into the pockets of businesses who support the status quo, and even some Republican supporting organizations, that it just was never going to happen.  I guess Biden felt that he needed to continue to make the effort rather than calling them out early on.

That was a complete miscalculation on Biden’s part for which he is responsible. 

But he is NOT at fault for the legislation not passing.  That fault falls squarely upon the Republicans and upon Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema.

Specifically with voting rights, I wish Biden would call out Manchin and Sinema loudly and clearly.  Their blockage of the voting rights legislation is clear, unequivocal support for every repressive voting law that has been passed by Republican states, and it is unequivocal support for the abominable Gerrymandering that has once again taken place in virtually every Republican controlled state legislature.

And please, please spare me the argument that “Democratically controlled states Gerrymander just as badly as the Republicans“. There are certainly some Democratically controlled states that Gerrymander. However, those states will not complain in the least if all Gerrymandering is outlawed.

In addition, of the 21 states that currently apportion their Congressional districts via either a non-partisan or a bi-partisan commission, all of those states, except for Idaho, are in either Democratically controlled, or in what are known as Purple states.

The failure of voting rights legislation is very likely the most severe consequence of Manchin and Sinema’s obstruction.

More than any other single thing, that has put our Democracy on the edge of extinction.

The Justice Department

Biden has kept his hands off the Department of Justice as he absolutely had to coming off of the disgrace that was that Department of Justice under Trump.

Biden also nominated a man to be Attorney General who one would have thought would be a very aggressive upholder of the rule of law once again.  But so far, I think fear of being perceived as overreaching his authority has handcuffed Merrick Garland to a significant extent.  But that is on Garland – not Biden.

Biden’s Approval Ratings

It is completely understandable that Biden’s approval ratings are low because he was never going to get support from Republicans no matter how well things went. 

As far as the Democrats and Independents, many are understandably frustrated and disappointed.  But unlike Republicans, who continued to support Trump no matter what despicable things he did and said, Democrats and Independents are letting Biden know that they are disappointed in him … and they should be.

But I do not believe that disapproval of Biden should translate in any conceivable way to support for Republicans. 

Disappointment in Biden is understandable. 

Support of the Republicans

because of that

disappointment is total insanity.

In Summary …

I wish I could give Biden a better grade than a ”C” but I cannot.  I am disappointed that he has continued to ignore the truths about the Republicans, and about Manchin and Sinema that most everyone else can clearly see.

I am disappointed that Biden was not an earlier, more vocal supporter of voting rights and that he is not yet even now calling out Manchin and Sinema for the traitors to our Democracy that both they and the Republicans are.

I was disappointed that his post reactions to the Afghanistan pullout have just intensified the belief by many that he handled the situation with general incompetence.

I have been disappointed that rather than inspiring confidence in our ability to overcome the economic crisis we find ourselves in, he has instead decided to focus almost solely on trying to take credit for things that are genuinely positive, such as increasing employment, while not clearly acknowledging that difficulties that we face.

All that does not make Biden a bad President.  We had four years to experience a shining example of not just what a really bad President looks and acts like, but what the worst possible human being in that Office looks like.

To just say that Biden is way better than Trump, or DeSantis, or Cruz or whomever the Republicans  choose to throw their support behind is ludicrously insufficient.

Biden most certainly is better. 

But we need much more than that. 

Joe, you must do much better. 

Or you must step aside in 2024 …

for someone who may.