Roe is dead. Gas prices are too high. The airlines keep cancelling flights. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic. There isn’t enough baby formula. Interest rates are rising. The BBB didn’t pass. Why? It’s Biden’s fault, of course!
Or so the left would have you believe. In reality, Biden was elected to operate within the constraints of liberal democratic government, and unlike Trump, he is doing so. Given that he doesn’t really have a majority in the Senate, he has accomplished about as much as anyone could. And he has done it without constantly “fighting.”
To put it another way, imagine Warren or Sanders had been president. Would Roe still be in place? Would gas prices be lower? Would the airlines be running smoothly? Would we have stayed in Afghanistan? Would we have more baby formula? Would interest rates have remained microscopic? Would Manchin and Sinema have changed positions on the BBB? The obvious answer to all of those questions is no.
I think it is accurate to blame Biden for being a bad salesperson for his administration, but some of that is a deliberate attempt to return American government to some semblance of normality after Trump sucked all of the oxygen out of the air for the four previous years. You can also “blame” him for, thus far, failing to wipe out student debt, which is something Warren and Sanders would have done by now, but in my opinion, his measured approach is the correct one. The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan may not have been the best choice, but it was fully supported by the left. Everything else he has done, or not done, has either been completely within the mainstream of the Democratic Party, or has been the result of constitutional constraints. If the left wants to accomplish its agenda, it needs to persuade the electorate to vote in more progressives.