Biden's Bridge To Nowhere
Watching President Joe Biden's farewell address from the Oval Office last night was rather bittersweet. For me at least, it all had a flavor of "what might have been." But in the end, Biden's promised bridge to a new generation of leadership really led nowhere.
While campaigning early in 2020, Biden appeared on a stage with three other prominent Democrats, who were at the time "expected to be considered for the vice presidential nomination" -- Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Gretchen Whitmer. Biden said during this campaign event: "Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country." While Biden never actually did explicitly promise to serve only a single term as president, many read his comments to mean exactly that -- Biden would defeat Donald Trump, run a bridging presidency, and then step aside and make way for a younger generation of Democrats to carry the torch forward.
This didn't exactly work out as planned, obviously. As Biden leaves office, the Democratic Party is at this moment almost completely leaderless. There is no one individual the party looks towards as its future. The 2028 presidential primary season is going to be brutal on the Democratic side, as a whole bunch of candidates will vie for the mantle of the party's leadership. Until then, we've got Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, both now only minority leaders in their respective chambers of Congress. Neither one is all that well-known to the public at large, and neither one truly speaks for his whole party. There are a number of state governors who long to be seen as the party's true leader, but none of them has really achieved that status at this point.
Kamala Harris might dispute the concept of a leaderless Democratic Party, but although she did step into the breach and lead the party in the election season, she ultimately lost. And Democrats aren't as forgiving of people who lose a presidential race as Republicans now are. Harris is likely to either go on to either run for California governor or make another bid for the presidency in 2028, but although she could probably easily achieve the former she will be but one of many in the presidential race. She's not going to clear the field by running, in other words.
But back to Biden's speech last night. As expected, Biden spent a fair amount of his speech touting his own successes, beginning with the cease-fire agreement just concluded between Israel and Hamas. But even as he ran down his accomplishments as president, it was pretty obvious that he failed in one big regard (as indeed most Democrats do) -- communicating these achievements to the public when they happen -- and then long afterwards, repeatedly. Democrats have this eternal problem when it comes to tooting their own horn, and Biden is particularly weak in this respect.
Part of the problem wasn't truly his fault, though, to be fair. A lot of the good things Biden managed to get through Congress are still in the preparatory or implementation stages, meaning the direct benefits haven't really percolated down to average Americans. Many of these programs were intentionally delayed in the legislation as written, mostly to save money. Biden couldn't get his sweeping Build Back Better plan through, which had a lot of things in it that would have happened immediately -- which would have changed millions of Americans' lives for the better. But two Democratic senators balked, and they forced Biden and the rest of the Democrats to whittle down the plans to save money. One of the ways to do this is to just push the implementation out a few years, which was done on a number of programs. Case in point is the fact that only this year -- long after the election is over -- will America's seniors have a brand-new $2,500 cap on their yearly out-of-pocket Medicare prescription drug prices. If this had been implemented immediately, then Biden (or any other Democrat) could have run on it in the campaign, since seniors would already know about it and be grateful for it. And that's just one program out of many that were pushed so far back they lost their value in the 2024 campaign.
Biden even addressed this in his speech, saying:
You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together. But the seeds are planted, and they'll grow and they'll bloom for decades to come.
Nice, but once again, it didn't help Democrats get re-elected last year.
What was interesting about the last half of Biden's speech -- where he issued warnings for the very near future -- was that the Democratic Party seems to be coalescing around a strategy for opposing Donald Trump and the Republicans: paint the GOP as the party of billionaires who don't care a whit for the average citizen out there. This is pretty easy to do, since Trump has named more ultra-wealthy people to his administration than any previous one. It will not be a team of rivals, it will be a team of oligarchs -- who don't care diddly-squat about populism. Biden warned of: "the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked."
In describing this, Biden harkened back to the past, including a reworking of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's most famous line from his own farewell address. [Note: these excerpts are all taken from the official White House transcript of Biden's speech, with very light editing to make Biden's occasional verbal stumbles more readable.]
Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.
We see the consequences all across America. And we've seen it before, more than a century ago. But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.
. . .
You know, [in] his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. He warned us then about, and I quote, "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power," end of quote.
...Six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.
Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.
We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families, and our very democracy from the abuse of power.
Biden obviously is speaking to future historians, in the hopes that his "tech-industrial complex" will become as well known as Eisenhower's phrase. But it all ties in to how many billionaires (tech and non-tech) have been trying to buy influence with the incoming Trump administration. Which could be the new emerging Democratic message: "Republicans are the party of the rich, and they simply do not care about you and your family."
As I said, the speech was bittersweet with the flavor of "what might have been." Biden also had a very hopeful list of things he would like to see accomplished in America, all of which are pretty good ideas:
We must reform the tax code -- not by giving the biggest tax cuts to billionaires, but by making them begin to pay their fair share.
We need to get dark money -- that's that hidden funding behind too many campaigns' contributions -- we need to get it out of our politics.
We need to enact an 18-year... term limit... and the strongest ethics reforms for our Supreme Court.
We need to ban members of Congress from... trading stock while they're in the Congress.
We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president -- no president -- is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The president's power is limit-[ed] -- it's not absolute, and it shouldn't be.
As I said, all good ideas. Which just leaves me wondering: "Why didn't you even try to get any of this stuff done in the last four years?" There was never a big push by Biden on any of these issues.
This is also Biden's "bridge to nowhere." None of these things are even a remote possibility for at least the next two years (until the midterms), and quite likely four years (since Trump will still be president). And Biden never championed them while in office, so I certainly don't expect to see him do in so a big way in his post-presidency.
I will end on a more cheerful note, though. Because America effectively has only two political parties, it forces both of them to every once in a while go through a process of emerging from the ashes phoenix-like, whenever they find themselves completely out of power. Democrats are going to have to go through this now, whether they emerge quickly or it takes many years. Democrats will eventually coalesce around a new leader for the party, but it might take until the 2028 presidential primaries (or even beyond) for this to fully happen.
Biden failed at building a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leadership, plain and simple. His decision to seek a second term pretty much guaranteed this outcome. Sadly, he may be remembered in the future more for this decision -- and his later withdrawal from the race after his disastrous debate with Trump -- than for anything else that happened while he was president.
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
As I said, all good ideas. Which just leaves me wondering: "Why didn't you even try to get any of this stuff done in the last four years?" There was never a big push by Biden on any of these issues.
Those were issues for his second term. Ahem. A term which may have come to be if he wasn't forced out of his re-election campaign so despicably. Oh, I know ... he would have lost, his detractors in his own party will say. And, they may be right. But, I hope they are losing a lot of sleep over, ah, what might have been. :-)
And Biden never championed them while in office, so I certainly don't expect to see him do in so a big way in his post-presidency.
Post-presidency? Seriously!? Why would you or any of his detractors think he is capable of anything remotely akin to a post-presidency? Too funny for words.
Democrats will eventually coalesce around a new leader for the party, but it might take until the 2028 presidential primaries (or even beyond) for this to fully happen.
Now, THAT is what's called a good bet ... especially the 'or even beyond' part.
Biden failed at building a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leadership, plain and simple. His decision to seek a second term pretty much guaranteed this outcome. Sadly, he may be remembered in the future more for this decision -- and his later withdrawal from the race after his disastrous debate with Trump -- than for anything else that happened while he was president.
Can you name one Democrat who would have been capable of beating Trump in 2024 or even one Democrat who might be capable of winning back the WH in 2028? Take as much time as you need.
Biden isn't in charge of succession in the Democratic party. And, it's hard to build a bridge when there isn't any foundational pillar on the other side to match the one where you start.
All that transpired through the second half of 2024 to oust Biden from his re-election campaign will, I surmise, be something that will take Democrats a very long time to rise above, in other words.
Perhaps an important lesson has been learned ... deceive the people about critical issues and suffer long-standing consequences.
While campaigning early in 2020, Biden appeared on a stage with three other prominent Democrats, who were at the time "expected to be considered for the vice presidential nomination" -- Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Gretchen Whitmer. Biden said during this campaign event: "Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country."
This moose poop!? Again!
It makes me no nevermind whether Biden did or did not claim this or that on a stage containing multiple (compared to Biden) "youngsters." None. However, I can definitely keep clarifying actual history for those persons who assumed things based on (what seems to me like) hindsight history and what I will assume is some people's after-the-fact or if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now wishful thinking.
So then, regardless what people assumed based on whatever speech from March 2020, not only did Biden not claim he would serve one term if elected and then step aside, the issue is something the press invented based on sources they referred to as "anonymous advisers," and candidate Biden as well as his aides answered unequivocally (and multiple times) way back in December 2019:
While Biden never actually did explicitly promise to serve only a single term as president, many read his comments to mean exactly that -- Biden would defeat Donald Trump, run a bridging presidency, and then step aside and make way for a younger generation of Democrats to carry the torch forward.
Be that as it may and still, Biden and his campaign had already stated unequivocally and repeatedly in December 2019 that there was no pledge and no plan.
This didn't exactly work out as planned, obviously.
Highly likely due to the fact that it was never "planned."
But even as he ran down his accomplishments as president, it was pretty obvious that he failed in one big regard (as indeed most Democrats do) -- communicating these achievements to the public when they happen -- and then long afterwards, repeatedly.
Democrats terminally have this problem with not celebrating at the Party until everyone has a cupcake. Meanwhile, Republicans brag incessantly about having the best chocolate cake you ever tasted... like they know what chocolate cake you've tasted, and I've had some pretty dang good chocolate cake.
Democrats have this eternal problem when it comes to tooting their own horn, and Biden is particularly weak in this respect.
Hopefully when Donald Trump and other Republicans are tweeting or ex-ing (or whatever) about ground being broken in the future and patting themselves on the back for something they had nothing to do with, Democrats will remind them about the multiple Trumpian so-called "infrastructure weeks" and how they failed spectacularly and repeatedly and how Republicans are taking credit (again) for something they voted against that Biden got done. #SSDD
You wrote, "As Biden leaves office, the Democratic Party is at this moment almost completely leaderless. There is no one individual the party looks towards as its future."
But this is a very odd thing to write. I've been following American politics my entire life, roughly 50 years, and I can't remember any time when an out-of-office political party had a single individual that was the 'leader' recognized by all as the future of that party.
As you say, referring to Harris this time around, a losing presidential candidate is not 'forgiven' and assigned the inside track for a second chance.
America doesn't have a parliamentary system where the opposition party has a formal structure of leadership, waiting for a victory that makes the opposition leader into the new national leader. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans work that way. When out of presidential power, it's catch as catch can: governors, senators, billionaires, and even mayors all put themselves forward as the possible next nominee. But none of them are recognized as the 'leader' of their party, when the party is out of power.
What you write about, as if it's a scandalous and losing proposition for the Democrats, is in fact the usual situation in American politics. The out-of-power party never - that's never, as in not ever - has a 'leader in waiting' that everyone in that party acknowledges as such.
Which could be the new emerging Democratic message: "Republicans are the party of the rich, and they simply do not care about you and your family."
Meet the "new" message... same as the old message.
No offense, but that one there isn't exactly a novel concept, and neither is this one:
That's the Republican Party writ large. Quite obviously, the list of "somebody to look down on" has greatly expanded, but the distraction while they laugh all the way to the bank remains intact.
As expected, Biden spent a fair amount of his speech touting his own successes, beginning with the cease-fire agreement just concluded between Israel and Hamas.
Which had NOTHING to do with Basement Biden.. The Israeli's state for the record that it was President ELECT Trump's actions that made the Israeli/Hamas deal possible..
Even Basement Biden's own Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby said it was President ELECT Trump's team that made the deal happen..
So Basement Biden deserves absolutely ZERO credit for that Israeli/Hamas deal...
Biden couldn't get his sweeping Build Back Better plan through,
Once again, the OBJECTIVE REALITY is far different from your claim..
That plan was the UN's plan that Basement Biden accosted for us in the US...
And America is a LOT BETTER OFF that the plan failed...
We really dodged a bullet on that plan...
was that the Democratic Party seems to be coalescing around a strategy for opposing Donald Trump and the Republicans: paint the GOP as the party of billionaires who don't care a whit for the average citizen out there.
Except the FACTS clearly show that it's BASEMENT BIDEN and the Democrats who are the Party of Billionaires..
The very richest Americans are among the biggest winners from President Joe Biden’s time in office, despite his farewell address warning of an “oligarchy” and a “tech industrial complex” that threaten US democracy.
The 100 wealthiest Americans got more than $1.5 trillion richer over the last four years, with tech tycoons including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg leading the way, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The top 0.1% gained more than $6 trillion, Federal Reserve estimates through September show.
Once again, we have Democrats accusing Republicans of what Democrats themselves are guilty of...
Hypocrisy at it's finest... :eyeroll:
As I said, all good ideas. Which just leaves me wondering: "Why didn't you even try to get any of this stuff done in the last four years?" There was never a big push by Biden on any of these issues.
Because those ideas are great for AMERICANS, but not great for the Democrat Party...
And the Democrat Party will always do what's best for the Democrat Party and NOT lift a finger to do what's best for America and Americans..
It's not rocket science..
Biden failed at building a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leadership, plain and simple. His decision to seek a second term pretty much guaranteed this outcome.
Funny... That's not what you people said at the time, eh??
Ya'all went on and on about how Basement Biden can win and then how Headboard Harris could win blaa blaaa blaaa ad nauseam...
When the FACTS and the OBJECTIVE REALITY clearly proved beyond ANY doubt that ya'all were completely and utterly WRONG about ALL of it...
If this outcome was "guaranteed", why didn't ya'all acknowledge that at the time???
I mean, this is supposed to be a REALITY BASED forum, is it not??
So, this begs the question..
Why didn't ya'all acknowledge the REALITY if it was "guaranteed"??
Sadly, he may be remembered in the future more for this decision -- and his later withdrawal from the race after his disastrous debate with Trump -- than for anything else that happened while he was president.
No "MAY" be about it...
This sad and pathetic debacle is Basement Biden's legacy.. Pure and simple...
And ALL of it could have been avoided quite easily if Democrats.... and YA'ALL... had accepted the facts and the objective reality at the time..
It really is that simple...
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
~ Lyndon Baines Johnson
That's the Republican Party writ large. Quite obviously, the list of "somebody to look down on" has greatly expanded, but the distraction while they laugh all the way to the bank remains intact.
Except it's a DEMOCRAT who is saying that...
And it's DEMOCRATS who continue to act like that..
No GOP involvement at all.. DUH.... :eyeroll:
Liz,
Those were issues for his second term. Ahem. A term which may have come to be if he wasn't forced out of his re-election campaign so despicably. Oh, I know ... he would have lost, his detractors in his own party will say. And, they may be right. But, I hope they are losing a lot of sleep over, ah, what might have been. :-)
Yep, yep, yep...
Democrats are their own worst enemies...
They live in the moment and completely ignore any long-term strategy...
There are a PLETHORA of facts that prove this beyond ANY doubt...
JMCT
But this is a very odd thing to write. I've been following American politics my entire life, roughly 50 years, and I can't remember any time when an out-of-office political party had a single individual that was the 'leader' recognized by all as the future of that party.
Odumbo... :eyeroll:
Jeezus, JMCT... Yer nothing but a huge batch of low-hanging fruit, ain'tcha... :eyeroll:
What you write about, as if it's a scandalous and losing proposition for the Democrats, is in fact the usual situation in American politics. The out-of-power party never - that's never, as in not ever - has a 'leader in waiting' that everyone in that party acknowledges as such.
See above..
Jeeeze, it's no wonder you run and hide after spewing such complete and utter kaa kaa...
You simply can't defend the words you put down in this forum... :eyeroll:
Post-presidency? Seriously!? Why would you or any of his detractors think he is capable of anything remotely akin to a post-presidency? Too funny for words.
That is pretty hilarious...
Basement Biden is going to leave office in 4 days and he will likely never be heard from again...
I fully expect to see his obituary by the end of 2025... 2026 at the latest..
All that transpired through the second half of 2024 to oust Biden from his re-election campaign will, I surmise, be something that will take Democrats a very long time to rise above, in other words.
Perhaps an important lesson has been learned ... deceive the people about critical issues and suffer long-standing consequences.
Well, that's the Democrat Party in a nutshell...
Lying to the American people constantly and only looking at the short-term while ignoring the long-term consequences are the defining qualities of the Democrat Party... Along with blatant hypocrisy...
The Democrat Party is simply dead and gone... Burned to ashes... Just like Los Angeles...
I fully expect to see his obituary by the end of 2025... 2026 at the latest..
Biden has gone thru the most devastating loss and an even more devastating betrayal..
His legacy is in tatters.. Despite all the good that he has done, Biden is going to be remembered for losing to President Trump (again) and being betrayed by his own Party...
When Biden does succumb to death, it will be his own Democrat Party that has killed him..
Just as sure as if they drove a stake thru his heart..
Because, in effect, that is EXACTLY what his Democrat Party did...
Great job, Democrats.. Ya'all not only sealed Biden's fate, but you have also sealed your own fate..
It takes a special kind of moronic talent to frak things up so utterly and completely perfectly... :eyeroll:
Michale[14],
You missed the point, completely. :(
In addition to tapping out a horrible comment.
Was your [15] meant to make up for it? Nice try.
@liz,
agreed.
JL
(to pretty much everything you've written on this column so far)