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President Biden and the End of the American Century [1]

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Date: 2025-03-06

I’ve recently found myself longing for the good old days, that golden time several decades past (What? Six weeks? Are you f’ing kidding me!?) when we had an actual president and a functional government. Please, journey back in time with me, and let’s remember together that simpler, more prosperous time.

The legends say that in “Biden’s America,” 16 million new jobs were added in four years—more than any other four-year term in history—including 700,000 manufacturing jobs. Twenty million applications were filed to start new businesses, the stock market hit record highs, and unemployment was at historic lows for months on end. In fact, there was not a single month of job losses for four solid years, a claim no other presidency can make. Government funding via the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act leveraged private investment to add over a trillion dollars to the clean energy and advanced manufacturing economy.

Back in the before times, there were no U.S. troops fighting in foreign wars for the first time in decades. Violent crime rates had plummeted, as had drug overdoses, and wage increases were outpacing inflation, which had fallen back into a normal range following the most successful recovery from the pandemic of any nation on earth. The U.S. had also become the world’s largest oil producer and, in short, the U.S. economy was the envy of the world. And Biden achieved all of this while adding less to the national debt than Trump did in his first four years.

Under Biden, America was replacing old roads, bridges, and water systems, and bringing high-speed internet to every American. The first gun safety law in 30 years was passed, and Medicare had begun negotiating lower drug prices for millions of American retirees. More people had healthcare than ever before, veterans were receiving long overdue medical benefits, civil rights were protected, and the United States was respected internationally. Under Biden, for the first time since Reagan, the federal government took seriously its responsibility to rein in monopolies and keep corporate rapaciousness in check.

NATO grew stronger under Biden, and the United States helped our democratic allies in Ukraine hold off the Russian invasion, militarily and economically crippling a major geopolitical foe without losing a single troop. Ukraine remains a free country because of President Biden.

In the words of Ron Klain, Biden’s first chief of staff, Biden delivered “the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second-largest healthcare bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history.”

Biden’s term wasn’t all sunshine and roses. His foreign policy especially left much to be desired. His term began with a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. While exiting that conflict needed to happen, his execution seemed to use the same “move fast and break things” philosophy of our current administration. By treating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won,” he dragged out the conflict unnecessarily. Greater resolve on Biden’s part could have saved many lives. His unwillingness to impose any kind of meaningful restrictions on Netanyahu allowed the Israeli leader to carry out a wanton genocide on the people of Gaza with American weaponry and zero accountability. He failed to revive a nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, maintained our nearly $1 trillion per year military budget, and “preposterously sustained economic sanctions on one-third of the countries of the world, including 60% of developing countries.” And his failure to secure the southern U.S. border (more a perceived threat than a real one, but still) was a major factor in Trump’s re-election.

Sadly, for all that Biden accomplished, he will largely be remembered for failing to prevent Trump’s return to power. Charles Sykes writes in The Atlantic that “By his own logic, the Prime Directive of his presidency was to preserve democracy by preventing Donald Trump’s return to power. His failure to do so will likely be the lasting legacy of his four years in office.” Were it not for this singular, though monumental, failure, Biden may have gone down as one of the most significant presidents in our history.

But most of his legacy has already been sundered by the successor he enabled. Instead of using his presidency to pave the way for a new generation of Democratic leadership, Biden decided to run for a second term despite his obvious physical and mental decline, and his administration’s decision to hide his condition from voters until it was too late sealed the deal. There are many to blame for Trump’s return to power, not least of all the American people, voters and non-voters alike. But it was the responsibility of Biden more than any single other individual to prevent this calamity.

All that being said, Biden didn’t: launch trade wars against our allies, threaten to militarily invade other countries, side with Russia over Europe, allow an unaccountable billionaire to demolish the government and riffle through Americans’ private data, undermine the Constitution, stuff his cabinet with incompetent sexual deviants and traitors, flood our streets with violent criminals (Jan. 6 pardons), suggest building a luxury resort on the bones of Palestinian children, threaten to slash Social Security and Medicaid, screw over our veterans, undermine our national security, or destroy USAID—a single act that will kill far more children from sickness and starvation than have died in the entire conflict in Gaza. (See my running list for more examples, details, and sources.)

I don’t raise these reminders just to antagonize you, dear reader, with all that’s been lost so quickly. As things get worse in the U.S.—and they will—it’s important to retain perspective and to remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to remember what a good thing we had in order to build something better on the ashes after the Trump-Musk firestorm has swept through—which it will, because like all fires they’ll eventually run out of things to burn. Biden was a flawed president, but the contrast of these administrations shows definitively that even an at-times feckless president with a decent character and good intentions is vastly superior to a bold, decisive, narcissist.

Sadly, the “normal” we knew under Biden is beyond recovery and was perhaps an illusion all along. Just making it through the next four years is no longer a viable option. Biden was a fine president, and I am grateful for the reprieve he gave us, but his fatal flaw was seeking to lead an America that no longer exists. In all likelihood, Biden’s term will be remembered as the closing chapter of The American Century.

Now it’s up to us to write the next chapter of the American story. The American greatness that Biden hoped to preserve is lost, but in its place, we can begin to create a new vision of American greatness to replace this culture of fear and anger that has brought us low. The first step in getting out of a hopeless place is to imagine where you’d like to be instead. “Anything but Trump” was, obviously, never good enough. Now is the time to envision a better future and a better America to work toward. Come, and imagine with me. Tell me about the America of your dreams.

*If you enjoy my work, please consider subscribing to my free newsletter at hopeanyway.substack.com. Thank you!

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