As he left office on Jan. 20, there was something unique about Joe Biden compared to other presidents of his time. Despite how divisive and die-hard politics in the United States has become, former President Biden left office with a majority of Americans, including in his own party, happy to see him go, and this may be the start of the legacy he is remembered by as he goes largely back into private life for the first time since the 1960s.
The start of his presidency in 2021 proved to be different than what happened by the end, however. Biden entered office with a pretty good start, at least at the face of it. Upon being sworn in, he was the first Democrat to have a trifecta Government since 2009, he had a 53% approval rating, had just won the most votes cast for a candidate in United States history and was taking over for a president that was probably the most controversial man in politics at the time. Despite this, there were caveats creating cracks in these positives from day one.
The trifecta he inherited was one of the smallest in United States history, with Democrats only having a nine-seat majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives, and the party only having a technical majority in the United States Senate, with Kamala Harris being the tie-breaker for the chamber. His approval rating would last that high for just a few months before his disapprovals would start to creep up on the administration. Worst of all for Biden, the man who he had hoped to get out of the ring politically still had a tight grip on the Republicans.
This precedent of getting a pro for the administration which included a caveat seemed to plague Biden for his whole time as president. The proponent of having relatively good approvals, which included the caveat of him not being the best communicator to effectively use those good ratings. When he withdrew troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the exit that the whole country was yearning for turned out to be a con for him, as the country fell to the Taliban within a week of the United States’ withdrawal. His stances on the wars in Ukraine and Palestine were also heavy blows to his reputation, with Republicans copiously panning the handling of the United States’ support for Ukraine, and many Democrats panning the administration’s handling of the Israel-Palestine War. Whatever Biden did as president, it seemed to be directly followed by somebody’s dislike and disdain for the action, and nothing proves this better than his initial run for a second term.
Leading up to 2024, Biden’s plan for the next election seemed to be up in the air. Despite hardships such as inflation in the economy and his growing unpopularity, the Democrats under Biden had quite a solid showing in the midterm races in 2022. The party barely lost the United States House, gained an official majority in the United States Senate, and the Democrats seemingly were glad to see that much of the denialism of electoral politics among Republicans was quite unpopular among independents and most Americans. With this success, Biden would break his promise of being a gateway into the next generation and would officially start campaigning for another term as president in mid-2023. This would prove to have the biggest electoral caveat of all for Democrats.
No president running for reelection in the modern era has ever been successful in his bid while having approvals around or below 45%. Most voted for Biden in 2020 simply as a protest vote against the era of divisiveness many saw through the last four years up to that point. Most of all, even time itself seemed to be against Biden. By the time of his reelection announcement, Biden was 80 years old, already far beyond the age of most presidents during their terms, and the age was starting to show heavily through his term. Despite this, whether it be pride or wrongly perceived optimism, Biden pressed on, and through doing so created an opening in politics that one man seemed to know how to benefit from: Donald Trump. Running for a second term, Biden was fighting against all odds for a candidate.
Despite trying to be the man to end Trump’s reign officially through running for re-election, Biden proved to be a simple bridge, not for the future generations to walk like he had promised, but instead a bridge of pause until Trump’s second term. Through being elected in 2020, Biden had the caveat of simply putting another Trump administration on hold for four years. During that time, Trump was able to do the impossible in many people’s eyes; he was able to win, proving to puncture a part of Biden’s legacy for the next generation of politics in America, and maybe even forever. Biden’s legacy may just be a caveat for his administration itself. Through trying to stop Trump, he simply turned into an opportunity for Trump to take the reins once again with little hardship.
Photo courtesy of 6ABC.
