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Thank You, Joe Biden [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-19

Greatness is often not appreciated in the moment. Joe Biden was handed one of the most difficult hands dealt to a modern President and he is leaving the country better than he found it, despite the fact that his predecessor (and successor) denied him the one thing that Presidents need most: legitimacy.

To this day, Donald Trump has not publicly acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election. Donald Trump incited a riot at the United States Capitol, a riot which nearly derailed the certification of Joe Biden's election as President. For years into Biden's presidency, reporters on the news referred to Trump as "President Trump." Trump did not give the gift that Clinton gave Bush and that Bush gave Obama: silence. Trump constantly tweeted about Biden's policies and attacked them. In a lot of ways, for the entirety of Biden's presidency, Trump was running a shadow Presidency.

Joe Biden entered the presidency with an ascendant Russia, a world staggering from the COVID pandemic, and an economy in tatters. Joe Biden led by centering the middle class: the Child Tax Credit, which reduced poverty by 50% in America, was an innovative idea that sadly didn't last. Roads, bridges, railroads, ports, auto plants, new semi-conductor plants, more affordable health insurance (leading to record numbers of Americans having health insurance), COVID vaccines that brought back a semblance of normalcy, $35 insulin, the ability of Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and the feeling that things were in good and competent hands defined the Biden Administration at home.

Unfortunately Trump's transactional corruption proved alluring for international powers. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he poured gas on an already slow-burning post-Covid inflationary post-COVID fire. Trump, the cynic that he is, publicly indicated they he'd be favorable to Russia to keep the war dragging on and prices high. Prices which he later exploited to win the 2024 election.

Despite that, Biden prevented Russia from using nuclear weapons, strengthened Ukraine, and European support for Ukraine, and left the Russian economy in shambles and Putin barely hanging onto power. Biden's actions in Ukraine--and weakening of Russia--contributed mightily to the recent fall of Bashir al Assad's dictatorship in Syria.

Before he left office the first time, Trump entered into a deal with the Taliban for the withdrawal of American Troops. That deal put America at a disadvantage. Biden followed through on the withdrawal and alienated all of the Washington power brokers, who seem to have never met a war that they don't support or a war that they want to fight in, and withdrew American troops from a quagmire that has bankrupted and ruined empires.

October 7, 2023 happened. Joe Biden led with heart and opposed terrorism. He publicly urged Israel not to overreact the way America did to awful and indefensible terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister of Israel was Bibi Netanyahu--another cynical operator who thought he could get a better deal with Trump. Netanyahu took actions that damaged Biden's political coalition and led to the election of Trump. Netanyahu appears to be the winner in the short run, but in the long run he has destroyed bipartisan support for Israel and has greatly damaged the Israeli national interest.

But at the end of his career, Biden put everything aside to work with Donald Trump and negotiate a cease fire that brought the few surviving hostages home. It was a fitting final act for an American President who throughout his career did something we know our next President won't: put the country above his own personal interests.

Joe Biden did so much good for these past four years. We were lucky to have him. And while some of his policies may be rolled back over the next two years, I have no doubt that the next time Democrats hold power that things like the Child Tax Credit will come to life again. Thank you, Mr. President. I hope you can attend the inauguration of whichever Democrat wins 1,370 days from now and I hope you hear the loud roar of a public that, with the passage of time, will come to appreciate you more than they do today.

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