At the One Year Point
Tomorrow marks the one year point in the presidency of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the 46th president of the United States.
He came to office pledging to be a unifier, the figure who could singularly bring the country together after four years of Donald Trump in the Oval Office, perhaps highlighted by a disturbance at the U.S. Capitol only 14 days before the inauguration.
Now, a quarter of the way through his term, things are likely worse in a host of respects.
Inflation is at levels not seen for 40 years. Grocery prices, gas prices…all with huge jumps in the past year. Partisanship is as fierce and divisive as before, perhaps even more so. And Congress has stalled on so many aspects of this president’s agenda.
And, of course, there’s COVID-19—more deaths, more variants, more uncertainty about governmental guidance.
Now obviously, this is not all Biden’s fault…and many of the current issues are not things the federal government can essentially wave a magic wand and fix.
But this is clearly not where Democrats thought they’d be as they watched the bad orange man leave town without watching his successor take the oath of office. The president’s approval ratings have cratered, questions about who the party will run in 2024 have arisen in part because of lack of confidence in the current team, and the president himself has gone from being a unifying figure to using the harshest of rhetoric on key issues.
There are no easy answers to the challenges this nation and the world are facing. Those of you listening can probably come up with a list of things Biden has done wrong, and I won’t argue the point; similarly, Democrats can point to a string of successes they look to with pride—some items might be on both lists.
Bottom line one year in is that for so many Americans, they are not better off than they were a year ago. And that will be a pivotal factor during the midterm elections this November…which will in turn tell us much about the final two years of this president’s term.
For now, it’s year two…with a sincere hope that year two is far better for citizens than year one was.
