As the curtains close on Joe Biden’s administration, and Donald Trump prepares for his second term in office, Biden’s legacy is being imprinted into the history books. His legacy in my history book? A solid B.
Despite misconceptions about his economy, Biden actually did quite a good job.With few exceptions, economic issues across the west have been the bane of the existence of President Biden and the Democratic party. Kamala Harris’s election loss was the most recent product of a heavily flawed perception of the US economy under the Biden administration. A post–election analysis of Bidenomics by The Guardian showed that despite the increasing number of jobs being added to the economy and the drastic decrease in unemployment from 6.4% when Biden took office in 2021 to 4.1%. The 14.6 million jobs that were added during Biden’s first three years in office was the biggest increase in American history. However, high prices resulting from the aftermath of the pandemic have kept Biden’s approval rating on the economy low among the public, who polls showed falsely believed that we were in a recession, hence the thrashing the Democrats experienced on election night.
Like any President, the mark Biden leaves on the world will be judged by how he dealt with other nations. The foreign policy of the first half of the Biden administration was good. He ended a drone war that the U.S. had waged under the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. In addition, he pulled the U.S. out of Afghanistan after 20 years of involvement and a decade after the death of Osama Bin Laden. This reduced the United States pointless global military presence resulting from two decades of interventionist foreign policy that the prior three administrations followed. Biden’s masterful handling of the war in Ukraine also promoted confidence in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Despite two years of people accusing him of being a warmonger, Biden was able to give Ukraine full backing to defend itself and hold Russia off without any direct interaction between NATO and Russian forces, successfully protecting Ukrainian autonomy and maintaining the geopolitical interests of NATO while keeping the world from World War III.
The foreign policy approach that left a stain on his legacy and cost Michigan for Kamala Harris was his support for Israel’s Likud government. In a just world, both the leaders of Hamas and The Israeli government should be locked up in The Hague for their acts of terrorism and war crimes. As of Oct. 7 of last year, Israel’s bombardment of civilian areas has shown to the world the destabilizing source that Netanyahu’s government is for the region as the civilian death toll continues to tick up. Biden has shown an inability to be able to distinguish between supporting a secure Jewish state and funding a rogue war criminal in Netanyahu. Biden’s continual, unabiding military aid for Netanyahu’s relentless bombing campaign of Gaza, in which innocent civilians have been caught in the crossfire, has led to the deaths of 45,000. Biden is also one of the only world leaders that has been so stalwart in his backing of the IDF with the Prime ministers of Canada, France, Italy and the UK saying that they would indeed arrest Netanyahu in accordance with the UN international court if he sets foot in their country. His unwavering support also had political ramifications, with Kamala Harris, Biden’s replacement on the Democratic ticket, having lost Michigan in part due to the loss of the traditionally democratic voting Arabic communities in Hamtramck and Dearborn. A true friend, like Biden claims to be with Israel, will tell their friend to stop when they have gone too far. It is one of two issues that will stain his legacy in the history books.
After the 2022 midterms where Democrats did surprisingly well despite polls showing otherwise, Biden should have called it quits and declared that he was not going to run for reelection, and give Democratic voters a choice for a younger candidate, more energetic candidate to take on Trump. This would have been a pragmatic move to protect his legacy from Trump. But instead, he waited much too long, and despite non ideal approval ratings for an incumbent, stayed in the race until his disqualifying debate performance that was the final straw to push him out. Out of financial convenience and a smooth transfer of 250 million dollars his campaign had raised, the nomination was given to Kamala Harris, a far from ideal candidate, who as we all know, lost decisively. Biden dropped out so late that his absence from the ticket didn’t win his party any states but barely prevented Virginia and New Jersey from going red. A very avoidable poor decision.
Despite misconceptions, Biden’s economy was statistically good with the amount of jobs that were created and an exceptionally low unemployment rate. Internationally, he rallied as a president that rallied NATO and handled the war in Ukraine responsibly while standing up to Putin’s illegal invasion. His legacy will be rightly criticized for his decision to stay in the Presidential race until June and had not been such a key ally of Netanyahu’s rampage, Joe Biden would have been the best President of the modern era.
