“His ultimate failure is not simply losing. It’s his failure to stop Trumpism from being such a dominant force in America.” — Julian Zelizer
On this Easter Sunday, can we resurrect Joe Biden’s reputation? Perhaps not — according to Julian Zelizer, the Princeton historian and editor of The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden, a collection of essays about the historical significance of the Biden Presidency.
Zelizer argues that Biden’s legislative record was more robust than most Americans remember — climate investments, semiconductor plants, diversity integrated into government programmes. Rather than policy, the problem was the politics. Biden didn’t build a coalition that would last long enough for his ambitious programmes to mature. He is the last of an era: a New Deal Democrat who believed in big government, that the Republicans could be brought back to the centre, that politics could still work the way it used to. Joe Biden promised to save the soul of America from the Charlottesville moment. Instead, his administration was bookended by a President who saw “good people” on both sides of the Charlottesville neo-Nazi violence.
Zelizer makes an unusual comparison: Biden as Barry Goldwater. Goldwater lost catastrophically in 1964. Decades later, his anti-New Deal ideas colonised the modern Republican Party. Zelizer suggests that Biden’s domestic agenda — affordability, industrial policy, bringing jobs home — may follow the same trajectory. Victory on the heels of defeat. A resurrection of sorts. Maybe not such a tragedy after all.
Five Takeaways
• The Last New Deal President. Big government, big programmes, the belief that Washington can help. The style of politics he represents may be over.
• His Record Was Better Than Anyone Remembers. Climate, semiconductors, diversity. The programmes didn’t fail. The coalition did.
• He Promised to Save the Soul of America. He couldn’t. Bookended by a more radical Trump Two that undoes everything.
• Biden as Goldwater. Lost catastrophically. But the ideas may outlast the man. Affordability, industrial policy, jobs.
• Bookended by Trump. There is no way to talk about Biden without talking about Trump. Trump is the defining voice of this era.
About the Guest
Julian Zelizer is a professor of history at Princeton. He edits the presidential assessment series.
References
The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden edited by Julian Zelizer
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Joseph R. Biden
00:02:21 Zhou Enlai and Kissinger: is it too early to tell?
00:04:34 The historians were eager to participate
00:06:16 A traditional president analysed in a traditional format
00:07:20 Divided We Stand: Newt Gingrich and the pathetic quality of the Democrats
00:09:48 Gramsci’s interregnum: frozen between the past and the future
00:11:35 The soul of America: Biden’s promise and ultimate failure
00:14:18 An unlikely person: plagiarism, alliances with segregationists, and luck
00:16:04 Lincoln’s widow at the theatre: why did anyone fancy this guy?
00:18:54 No ideological coherence: the compromise candidate
00:21:13 The CHIPS Act looked great on paper
00:23:38 Who was running the show?
00:25:30 The debate: clearly at best out to lunch
00:28:26 Biden as Barry Goldwater: ideas that outlast the man
00:30:38 Kamala Harris and backward momentum for female candidates
00:34:38 Foreign policy: the irony of his supposed strength
00:38:25 The Hoover comparison: the end of a chapter in American history