While the President of the United States is subjected to intense scrutiny, it’s easy to form myopic judgments about them in real time. Often, our perceptions are shaped by the caricatures presented in the media—like a clumsy Gerald Ford, helpless Jimmy Carter, intellectually limited Ronald Reagan, inept George W. Bush, or a senile Grandpa Joe Biden.
It’s a remarkable transformation for the folksy “Uncle Joe” who first entered the national spotlight, and one that solidified after his victory against Donald Trump in June.
However, Biden’s accomplishments over the past four years, drawing on his extensive political and diplomatic experience, strongly demonstrate his effectiveness as one of the most successful one-term Presidents in American history.
Early in his term, he swiftly unified the Democratic Party around his leadership, silencing those who predicted he would be swayed or defied by his party’s unruly left wing. Among other initiatives, he established working groups designed to bring progressive and moderate Democrats together to identify areas of common ground, shaping his ambitious domestic agenda.
This party harmony played a key role in his congressional victories, becoming signature achievements. A seasoned political strategist and skilled negotiator throughout his years in the Senate and eight years as Barack Obama’s Vice President, Biden championed the American Rescue Plan Act, mitigating the economic consequences of COVID-19; the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, repairing dilapidated roads and bridges, and enabling massive investment in rural broadband; the CHIPS and Science Act, reducing reliance on foreign manufacturing of crucial semiconductor chips; and two of the most comprehensive gun safety bills in nearly three decades. And when his $2 trillion Build Back Better bill was rejected, Biden revived it as the still-significant Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in August 2022. All these laws were enacted despite a narrow majority in the House and a 50/50 split in the Senate. These accomplishments make Biden the most significant legislative President since Lyndon B. Johnson.
Biden also proved to be a capable manager of the economy despite facing significant headwinds. Unemployment is at its lowest point in over half a century, while GDP growth is robust, making the U.S. economy the world’s leading economic power. Pandemic-era inflation has eased, but he deserves credit for bolstering a hampered economy inherited from Trump.
Additionally, the former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has quietly filled federal judgeships, slightly behind Trump’s pace at this point in his presidency, but far ahead of Obama who ended up leaving 105 empty federal judgeships due to an obstructionist Republican-controlled Senate.
Finally, Biden kept his promise to return to democratic norms after Trump’s destructive first term. While he didn’t unite the country as he hoped—perhaps an impossible task without a direct threat to the nation—he led as President of all Americans. He also revived the U.S.’s global standing, which was significantly weakened under Trump, leveraging the relationships he built during his years in the Senate and West Wing to restore an alliance that has been crucial to supporting the post-war international order. The revitalization of NATO meant that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine wasn’t met with unchecked aggression from the West, which, led by the U.S., has poured billions into Ukraine’s defense.
Biden deserves credit for rallying his party around his leadership and pushing through the most transformative legislative agenda since LBJ. But it’s the safeguarding of democracy that Biden called the “moral imperative” of his presidency, and on which his legacy primarily rests.
After leaving public life in 2017, Biden, who had previously sought the presidency in 1988 and 2008, was compelled to run for office again in 2020 due to the existential threat to democracy posed by Trump, engaging in a fight “to restore the soul of America.” Winning the White House from Trump was a monumental achievement, marking the first time a sitting President was defeated for reelection in nearly 30 years and preventing the 45th President from inflicting further democratic damage. Biden invoked the nation’s “better angels” and steered the country impressively through the initial years of his presidency, returning America to a thriving liberal democracy.
His courageous decision to withdraw from the 2020 Democratic presidential race—in the face of mounting pressure from Democrats after the June presidential debate—reflects his characteristic instinct to prioritize country over personal ambition. As he remarked, “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.” If he had been able to prevent a second Trump term, surely Biden would have been considered one of our great or near-great Presidents.
To that end, several “What ifs” will linger in the evaluation of Biden’s legacy. What if he had more effectively communicated his Administration’s economic achievements? What if he had performed as well in his June debate against Trump as he had in their two 2020 match-ups? What if he had stayed out of the 2020 Democratic primary and let the process play out, potentially resulting in a more viable challenger to Trump? What if he hadn’t chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate?
But such hypotheticals are mere folly. What we know is this: Despite his best efforts, Biden was unable to completely quell the orange tide of Trump’s resurgent, angry populism rooted in economic discontent. Instead of turning the page on the MAGA Movement, Biden will be seen as a productive interlude, a period of relative calm before the Trump storm surge returned.