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Joe Biden has always been defined by his stubbornness. So ending a 50-year career by bowing out only months before an election must have been humiliating. His decision to announce his resignation from the ticket in a social media post can be seen as one last act of defiance against his party’s political establishment.
He was able to announce his resignation on his terms, free from the dozens of leaks and catty backhanded insults his party had directed his way over the past few weeks. Their attempt to force him out was ultimately successful, but he alone will get to define the last few months of his presidency.
Regardless of who the Democrats choose to replace him — his Vice President Kamala Harris is his favoured choice but hardly polls any better than he does — it is likely that we will see Donald Trump return to the Oval Office next year. Will that end up being Biden’s legacy in office: returning the twice-impeached convicted felon to the halls of power?
Those of us who are frustrated by politics being consumed by the horse race may have a different takeaway. The stubborn Biden was, after all, the President who was able to put his foot down and actually withdraw America from the war in Afghanistan, ending 20 years of involvement in that country’s morass. His appointments across the federal government marked a shift away from neoliberalism — from installing Big Tech critic Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission to maintaining and even expanding many of Trump’s protectionist trade policies. By overseeing the passage of large-scale infrastructure and climate investment bills, he has helped rejuvenate American manufacturing.
Yet his legacy will also be defined by America’s continued entanglement with wars overseas. The war in Ukraine drags on with no apparent end in sight, taking the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians alike. But at least in that conflict, America can operate under the pretence that it is preventing a permanent Russian occupation of Eastern Ukraine.
With Israel’s war in Gaza, America’s allies in Jerusalem have made clear they have no endgame in sight and appear fine with a permanent occupation of Palestinian soil — something that will only serve to harden the growing international feeling that Israel’s future is as an apartheid state. To many young Americans, Biden’s refusal to end his financial and military support for Netanyahu’s operations makes him persona non grata.
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