As Americans gathered with their families this Christmas season, two political topics were buzzing around dining room tables: shocking new revelations about President Joe Biden’s steep decline, and his administration’s decision to commute the pardons of 37 of the 40 federal death row inmates.
Each topic has broader implications that will live long beyond the Biden presidency, which is mercifully headed toward its final chapter. Long after Biden is gone, each will be answered for by the Democratic enablers who not only stood idly by but empowered his every move.
Let’s unpack each. In the last full work week of the year, a deeply reported Wall Street Journal story laid bare Biden’s infirmity in stark terms. While most Americans only became fully aware of his decrepit nature during the catastrophic June 2024 debate that ended his candidacy and career, the Journal story detailed the great lengths his staff took to shield him from scrutiny dating back to the earliest days of his administration three years earlier.
According to the reporting, matters of national security were punted because Biden had “good days and bad days.” Cabinet meetings were infrequent. As inflation surged to heights not seen since the Carter administration, Treasury Secretary Yellen had an “arm’s length relationship” with Biden.
The Biden era coincided with major events at home and abroad. Old wars ending in Afghanistan (in disgrace), while new ones broke out in Israel and Ukraine. Domestic issues like “supply chain” challenges, five dollar a gallon gasoline for the first time ever, and grocery store prices rising 20 percent. All took place with a “diminished leader” at the helm.
Yet at the same time, the committed leftists pulling the levers of government were very much with it – and focused on driving the country distinctly leftward in a manner at odds with candidate Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to restore “normalcy.”
Consider their to-do list: Undoing Trump’s immigration policies. Declaring war on traditional forms of energy in support of an untested green agenda. Allowing “Transgender Day of Visibility” to fall on the same day as Easter Sunday. Launching countless against homegrown American companies that were being punished for their success.
Finally, on his way out the door, the decision to commute the sentences of convicted killers – a move that outgoing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, formerly a lifelong Democrat until he had decided even he had seen enough, blasted as, “horribly misguided and insulting.”
As Democrats enter their political winter, they must answer for these lapses in judgment before they can be taken seriously as a governing party again. It’s a mistake to assume the election would have worked out differently had only Biden dropped out earlier and Vice President Kamala Harris had more time to cobble together a national operation. After all, she was carrying all the same unwise and unpopular policies of her governing partner – she was just able to do it in a slightly more coherent and cogent manner.
Ultimately, the long-term damage goes beyond Biden or Harris and into the rot of the entire Democratic apparatus. The members of Congress who assured us that Biden was fit for the job just because he was able to read off a teleprompter during a State of the Union address. The elected representatives who voted for his decidedly left-wing agenda part and parcel, including the entire New Hampshire federal delegation, who campaign as “moderates” when it’s time for reelection and then vote with national Democrats nearly 100 percent of the time.
The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan dubbed the situation, “The President Who Wasn’t There.” The discussion about age wasn’t limited to just those on the right, either. On her way out of office, New Hampshire’s Annie Kuster warned of politicians who, “just stay forever” and described her voluntary retirement as “trying to set a better example.”
The Democratic Party’s winter will extend until it realizes it’s not just that their leaders are past their sell-by date, but it’s their vision for the country that is wildly out of step with voters.
