Overthrowing Joe Biden
“…Nineteen months into his first term as president, Joe Biden appears to be the lamest of lame ducks. The rapidity and completeness of his political collapse is unprecedented in my long life as an observer of such things, and possibly in our history. It’s as if the death scene that wrapped up an elaborate plot happened 15 minutes into the movie. What on earth can we expect for next two hours? Similarly, with Biden disappearing into a tar pit of irrelevance, the next two-plus years until the 2024 presidential election present an uncertain and inscrutable aspect.
The array of disasters accumulated by Biden in less than two years is impressive: defeat and humiliation in Afghanistan; the outbreak of war in Europe; spiking inflation and energy costs; a sputtering economy; a resurgent pandemic; supply chain disruptions of essential goods like baby formula. The response to each crisis has followed a recurring pattern. Ignorance and denial come first. A few comic pratfalls later, the rhetoric turns to panicked scapegoating. The essential duty of government, which is fixing the situation, gets skipped altogether.
Such impotence is, in large part, a function of the astounding levels of unreality and policy incoherence that afflict decision-making in the administration. I defy anyone to explain how Biden believes U.S. interests are engaged in the Ukraine-Russia war, or what he thinks about the not-inconsequential matter of energy extraction and supply.
A sullen public has judged the president’s performance and found it wanting. According to one poll, a remarkable 71 percent say that he should not run for a second term. In the same poll, an equally remarkable 62 percent think that “Biden is too old to be President.” Biden’s popularity ranges between 36 and 41 percent—but he has been plummeting for months and has yet to touch bottom. He is perceived as a leader who does nothing well: His “approval on management of issues is weak across the board,” proclaims a recent Harvard/Harris poll. Adding horror to injury, Donald Trump, arch-fiend to the Democratic faithful, handily defeats Biden in many matchup polls (see here and here).
The numbers are devastating and almost certainly fatal. Furthermore, they reflect, in my opinion, a just assessment of President Biden. He was, in his prime, an empty suit, a hanger-on whose chief ambition for decades had been to cling to the top of the pyramid—and he is today diminished by the usual ravages of age. This means that, unlike Reagan or Truman, he can’t tap into some iron principle or a defiant character to save himself from catastrophe. Never much of a political force, Biden is now done.
He is himself dimly aware of his premature burial. Like many persons of a certain age confronted with a circumstance they can’t quite comprehend, he has responded with fits of anger. Articles in Politico and NBC News portray a president railing at White House staff for correcting his misstatements, at prominent Democrats for presuming to test the waters as 2024 presidential hopefuls and at the general public for saddling him with those humiliating opinion polls. He has blasted the Supreme Court for what he called its “outrageous behavior” and mocked reporters for asking uncomfortable questions (“You sound like a Republican”).
At times he resembles a new-age version of broken old King Lear, forsaken in the heath, screaming imprecations at the storm. Here is Biden on the Fourth of July, a day usually reserved for inspirational bromides timed before millions of hamburgers hit the grill: “Liberty is under assault, assault both here and abroad. In recent days, there has been reason to think this country is moving backwards, that freedom has been reduced, that rights we assumed were protected are no longer.”
Of course, this is Washington, D.C., not Shakespearean tragedy. The protagonist never really goes mad or dies—but there will be talk of firing his staff…”