Between progress and parliamentary blockages, the lost illusions of Joe Biden

A year after the promises, the time of frustration. He invoked the “guardian angels” of unity, he was overtaken by the demons of America: in one year, the optimist, the good-natured Joe Biden has turned into a darker president, who fights to save at least some big promises.

On January 20, 2021, on the sunny steps of the Capitol, the just invested 46^and President of the United States assured that America would, quoting Abraham Lincoln, “embrace its guardian angels”, and that he would put “all his soul” to “reunite” it.

On January 6, 2022, a completely different Joe Biden speaks, alone in the overwhelming setting of the hall of statues of the same Capitol, a year after the assault launched by a raging crowd of supporters of Donald Trump.

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“I won’t let anyone put the knife to democracy’s throat,” he said. “I did not seek this fight” against political violence and authoritarian temptations, but “I will not run away”.

No more question of praising the dialogue with the Republican opposition or treating his predecessor with contempt. “The goal of the former president and his allies is to disqualify anyone who votes against them. It’s as simple as that. The facts will no longer be worth anything. Your vote will no longer be worth anything”, attacks the president, a few days later late.

The change in tone is undeniable for this 79-year-old Democrat who usually prefers anecdotes to invective, an accomplice tone to a great diatribe.

“A political miscalculation”

However good-natured he may be, the president is not popular: the polls give him around 42% favorable opinions.

And according to a survey by Quinnipiac University, 58% of Americans believe that democracy will not resist the divisions of the country, which is more than ever haunted by violence: that of political attacks, social or racial inequalities, deaths by overdose or by firearm.

Joe Biden has pledged to turn the page on the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, to guarantee the prosperity of the middle class, to restore America’s international prestige.

Very big promises for a president without real parliamentary leverage: in the Senate, the Democrats have only 50 + 1 vote (that of Vice-President Kamala Harris) against 50 for the Republicans.

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Joe Biden “made a political miscalculation” by saying he had “a real majority of government” instead of “posing as a ‘cohabitation president’, which he is, in fact”, analyzes Corentin Sellin, associate professor of history and chronicler of the site Les Jours.

The mandate had however started well: rapid adoption of a recovery plan, drop in unemployment, jump in vaccination against Covid-19, enthusiasm of the allies of the United States.

Joe Biden plays with his personality, unlike that of his Republican predecessor. He has an easy joke and hug, family dramas have endowed him with an obvious empathy. Alongside his wife Jill Biden, he cultivates the image of a benevolent grandfather: a swing for the grandchildren under the windows of the Oval Office, a dog, mass on Sundays and ice cream in the freezer.

Parliamentary sinking for two major projects

But his presidency goes off the rails in the summer of 2021. In July, Joe Biden prematurely declares “independence” from the Covid, while the Delta variant is already spreading. Then he is slow to react when the withdrawal from Afghanistan turns into chaos. The Americans are stunned by the fall of Kabul, Joe Biden is entrenched in the Camp David residence.

The adoption of a historic infrastructure investment plan, with some Republican votes, gives it some air in the fall. But Americans are weary of the pandemic, which is rolling in wave after wave. They are undergoing a surge of inflation that the White House has been trying to minimize for a long time.

And all the experience of Joe Biden – senator for more than 30 years, vice president eight – cannot save two great projects from parliamentary wreckage.

It must freeze in December, because of a single recalcitrant Democratic senator, an 1850 billion social and environmental spending project. Same scenario in January, for a vast reform supposed to protect the access to the vote of the African-American voters, mainly democrats, and which restrict de facto laws of certain republican states of the South. The same states which, with the blessing of a Supreme Court that has become very conservative, are also challenging Washington on the right to abortion.

Outside, Joe Biden makes a point of keeping an open line of communication with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. But his team sometimes seems to be picked on cold by the provocations of China or Russia, or by the protests of allies who consider themselves neglected – even cheated, when France gets a huge contract for submarines.

“Everything revolved around a return to normal, a hope for dialogue across partisan divides, and a priority given to the major crises, namely the Covid and the economy”, analyzes Lara Brown, political scientist at George Washington University. But that “optimism, combined with popular hope that all of these issues would be fixed, made (Joe Biden and his administration) fall into hubris.”

With AFP