The Joe Biden who swore his oath of office on the west front of the United States Capitol one year ago on January 20, 2021, is not the Joe Biden Americans see shuffling around the White House today. Last year, Biden presented his policies as a can't-fail way to "build back better," "shut down the virus," and lead the American economy out of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Flanked by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Biden's party controlled two-thirds of American government, and it seemed, on paper at least, that Biden would be able to do what he wanted. For those who had voted for Biden, things seemed primed to launch. For those who opposed Biden, it looked like a looming disaster. Neither group knew how bad things would get and how quickly the situation would deteriorate.
Despite actions right out of the gate that killed America's energy independence and ushered more woke nonsense into the federal government, President Biden has proven to be more woebegone as a leader than any Democrat could have feared and more chaotic than any conservative could have hoped for as a foil to Republican leaders and policies.
As the Biden administration turns one, the president is still proving how incapable of leadership he is. Despite promising to unify America, be something of an adult in the room, and build America back better, President Biden capped off his first year in office with an angry rant about how half of America is on the side of historical racists like Jefferson Davis. Inflation is out of control. The supply chain is broken. America's foes around the world grow more emboldened every day.
President Biden's promise to "shut down the virus" completely fell apart when the Delta and Omicron variants of the Wuhan coronavirus popped up, and despite his efforts to paint a picture of a president in action, his OSHA vaccine mandate for private employers got slapped down by the Supreme Court. All the while, Biden's COVID messaging was more of the same divisive rhetoric that's become a trademark of his administration.
After faltering multiple times, Biden threw his hands up and declared that there's no federal solution to the pandemic. Biden took office with three vaccines, numerous therapeutic treatments, and on the heels of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed success. He implemented more restrictions and mandates that Biden promised would save America from COVID. And yet, according to the CDC's dashboard, there have now been more COVID deaths under Biden's leadership than Trump's. Another complete failure for Biden despite his freedom-depriving policies he told Americans would "shut down the virus."
On the world stage, Biden's administration has been a failure, too — with deadly and embarrassing results. His withdrawal from Afghanistan, something he and his administration lied and misled Americans about at every turn, was another low point that passed unacknowledged by Biden. Sobering images of people clinging to the landing gear of American planes at the Kabul airport turned to horrific videos of Afghans falling to their deaths as Biden's airlift came apart at the seams.
His disastrous withdrawal saw 13 U.S. service members killed in an ISIS-K suicide attack along with hundreds of innocent Afghans trying to flee barbaric Taliban fighters. The resulting drone strike called "righteous" by the Biden administration turned out to be a deadly mistake that killed ten innocent Afghans, including seven children. Presidential promises to not leave any Americans behind were broken when the last U.S. plane took off, leaving an unknown number of U.S. citizens as hostages in a country under terrorist rule.
Less severe, but nonetheless damaging to America's global reputation, Biden has angered and confused our country's allies. His unilateral action to withdraw from Afghanistan caught the countries who fought alongside the U.S. over the previous two decades off-guard. A nuclear submarine deal with Australia undercut longtime ally France so much that its ambassador was recalled. Countries like Taiwan and Ukraine are finding themselves under the gun from totalitarian regimes such as China and Russia and can no longer count on a strong America as a deterrent against enemy invasion.
Back in the United States, Biden's domestic policies in the last year have compounded to make life more expensive, more dangerous, and more uncertain.
His first year saw gas shortages, food shortages and grocery store rationing, a broken supply chain, runaway inflation, labor shortages, and turbulent markets. Through it all, Biden denied the pain being felt by Americans. Inflation that's reached four-decade highs was brushed off as "transitory." Accusations that Biden's economic policy isn't proactive enough are dismissed as "malarkey." All of it from the president who promised to "build back better."
The southern border is entirely open, save for a few portions where actual leaders are taking action on their own to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Record-setting numbers of illegal immigrants are being apprehended, and even more are getting away or not showing up for court dates after being caught and released into the United States. Human and drug traffickers are enriching themselves thanks to Biden's lack of border security at the expense of Americans' safety.
Violent crime elsewhere in America has also spiked to devastating highs in many major American cities under Biden, who continues to pursue policies that will make it harder for law-abiding citizens to use firearms to protect themselves, their families, and their property. Inspired by Biden's proclamations of woke virtue, big-city leaders are going soft on crime with deadly results that bring even more chaos to their streets.
Biden has failed at even the most basic functions of his office, such as using his power and influence as a president to guide legislative priorities through a Congress his party controls, albeit narrowly. Multiple times, the president's build back better budget — a cute name for a disastrous package of taxes, spending, woke nonsense, and government expansion — has failed to secure the support of enough Democrats to pass the House and Senate. Despite "master negotiator" Nancy Pelosi doing her best, radical leftists in her caucus initially blocked the bill. In the Senate, Biden has failed to win over enough Democrat support, even with attempted strong-arming by Schumer, to pass his federal takeover of elections.
In both instances, Pelosi and Schumer have defiantly plowed ahead with the radical bills and forced vulnerable Democrats to vote "yes" on legislation that has no chance of passing. In the end, Biden's legislative blunders have done more damage to Democrats while leaving his party without accomplishments to tout.
Several of Biden's attempts to institutionalize woke leftism within the federal government have gone down in embarrassing flames. His nominees like David Chipman and Saule Omarova — put forward to lead ATF and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, respectively — were forced to bow out of consideration after getting dragged for their radical records.
Biden's first year has been marred by violence, chaos, carnage, despair, and confusion — here at home and around the world. All his unforced errors and foolhardy decisions have taken a toll on the American people, our national reputation, and Biden's own favorability, even among those who watched his inauguration with hope one year ago.
Just one-in-three Americans now approve of Biden, and when it comes to party preferences, Democrats went from being up nine points over Republicans to being down five points — all in Biden's first year. Despite promising to "build back better," all Biden can say after one year is that he managed to build a stronger coalition against him, dragged America back to the days of Jimmy Carter, and better hope that he can get something, anything, accomplished to keep Democrats from getting utterly destroyed in the midterms.
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