The Chief Executive of Absurdity
Joe Biden symbolizes the decline and fall of America's political culture
Joe Biden’s slide in the polls dates from a debacle that occurred two years ago: America’s chaotic, disgraceful abandonment of Afghanistan. Thirteen US military service members—eleven marines, a seaman and a soldier—lost their lives during Joe’s Afghanistan Skedaddle. The suicide bomb that killed them also killed around 170 Afghan civilians. And the subsequent US retaliatory drone strike merely succeeded in killing many more innocent Afghans. Then there were the scenes of disorder and fear at Kabul Airport, accompanied by the happy talk of US military spokesmen, describing the Taliban as cooperative and businesslike.
It was as if the President and his people had gathered around the conference table in the White House Situation Room and asked themselves, “How would we do this if we were despicable cowards and absolute fools?”
Characteristically, the Biden Administration held no one in the chain of command responsible for what happened, and the President himself refused to accept responsibility for what was, obviously, a catastrophe. Instead, he laid the blame on his predecessor: Really, it was all Donald Trump’s fault. On the other hand, Biden rated his own performance highly. It was the greatest airlift in history!
But the damage was done. Biden’s shifty, evasive behavior during the crisis, his contradictory statements, the impression he gave of being overwhelmed by events, and above all his callous attitude toward the death and suffering caused by the shameful bugout he ordered caught the attention of the American people. In particular, it angered the families of those dead and wounded Americans, not to mention the larger community of Afghanistan veterans and their families. In that category I include myself, my wife and my daughter, an Army veteran of Afghanistan.
Looking at Joe Biden today, one marvels that a dishonest, mendacious, foolish, clueless old man like him managed to slither into the Oval Office. His presidency is a malign accident of fate: Had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump might be well into the sixth year of his presidency. But had it not been for Barack Obama, Trump might not have been president at all. It was Obama who anointed Hillary Rodham Clinton as his successor, assuring the nation with his signature pomposity that she was the most qualified person ever to run for the presidency. (No doubt he added, sotto voce, besides me.)
Alas, the most qualified person ever to run for the presidency managed to lose to the Prince of the Golden Escalator. Then the pandemic blew up Trump’s chances for reelection. And in the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, it was Joe Biden who snagged the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and vanquished Trump.
As a candidate Joe Biden was billed as Mr. Normality, the steady, moderate, perhaps boring but blessed antidote to the Sturm und Drang of the Trump years. Seasoned by decades of service in the US Senate, stuffed full of acquired wisdom, a middle-class guy with empathy to burn, he could be relied to keep a steady hand on the tiller of the ship of state. But this narrative was of recent date, for Biden’s reputation prior to his selection as Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008 was…somewhat different.
Correctly judging that his lack of foreign policy experience would be a weakness, Obama looked around for a running mate to give him cover there. That his choice fell on Joe Biden, of all people, is one of the wonders of American political history. Or perhaps not. Given Obama’s overweening self-regard, it seems likely that he viewed Biden’s presence on the ticket as little more than a cosmetic embellishment. It seems unlikely that he would ever have allowed himself to be guided by his vice president’s foreign policy advice. For the truth is that as a senator, Joe Biden bore the reputation of a fabulist, a blowhard, and a doofus. And Obama, who is not stupid, knew this all along.
Biden’s own presidency has demolished his 2008-20 persona and reestablished his senatorial reputation. This was inevitable: the modern American presidency is pitiless in its exposure of every character flaw, every personal inadequacy, every intellectual and moral failing. And Joe Biden embodies a plentitude of such deficiencies. Inevitably, therefore, his credit with the American people has dwindled to the pittance that remains today. He has been weighed in the balance and found wanting on grounds of age and incompetence
It should not be thought, however, that Biden’s age is the root of the problem. His physical and mental decline is an accelerant, certainly, but he’s going down because he possesses neither the intellectual nor the moral capacity to do the job. Put simply, he’s cracking up under the stress.
His defenders find themselves saddled with an impossible, indeed humiliating task. Here, for instance, is White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: “It is hard for us to keep up with this president, who is constantly, constantly working every day to get things done!” Yes, of course, she gets paid to run interference for the President, but this ridiculous claim contradicts the evidence of our eyes and ears. It simply isn’t true, and KJP knows it. There are, however, many Democrats and progressives who’ve somehow managed to convince themselves of an absurdity: that Joe Biden is a great statesman.
That notion is easily disposed of. Here’s the Great Statesman commenting on the recent Jacksonville shooting. And here he is comparing the disastrous Maui wildfire to a fire in his kitchen fifteen years ago. Let’s just say that these were embarrassing moments—unworthy of a small-town mayor, much less the President of the United States.
It would be absurd for Democrats to run a man like Biden next year. But it was absurd for the Dems run him in 2020, absurd for Republicans to run Trump in 2016 and 2020, and absurd for the GOP to run him in 2024. Yet all these absurdities have come to pass—leading to the sad conclusion that the political culture of what used to be the world’s greatest country has itself become absurd. And the presidency of Joe Biden is the sign and symbol of that absurdity.
Who was "the most qualified person ever to run for the presidency"?