- by New Deal democrat
Over 5 years ago, I took a look at the 500 year history of the Roman Republic. In my penultimate discussion of its downfall, I wrote:
“By 78 BC the Republic was dead on its feet. Virtually all of its norms of office-holding had been swept away. Political mobs using violence to get their way had become chronic. Even worse from a long-term point of view, prominent politicians of wealth were raising private armies that they themselves paid, and whose loyalty was to them rather than to the Republic, culminating in 3 separate military marches on Rome in short-lived dictatorships.”
The title of this post is not because there will not be future Institutionalist politicians, but because by four years from now I believe those Institutions will similarly be “dead on their feet,” understood to be hollowed out forms that have proven themselves unable to withstand raw power grabs. While Biden had a number of impressive policy triumphs, I believe it is his ultimate complacency about American “norms” that will be his legacy.
Last week Qasim Rashid wrote:
“Here’s a harsh truth. [Biden] ran in 2020 on the promises to ‘save the soul of America’ and to ‘protect American democracy. …. Now as he leaves office, white supremacy and Christian nationalism ar the official policies of a fascist returning to the White House with full control of the House, Senate, and SCOTUS. The harsh truth is Biden failed his promises.”
Let’s leave aside the outline of Trump’s policies, and any assignment of fault to Joe Biden. The simple *fact* is that the ultimate *outcome* of Biden’s Presidency has been that the American “soul” has not been saved, and “American democracy” has not been protected.
At the beginning of his term in office, Joe Biden had a choice: he could either emphasize playing hardball going after the myriad transgressions of Donald Trump and his allies during his Presidency, or he could emphasize restoring the prior norms and “guardrails” that historically allowed the American Republic to function. He chose the latter.
That choice was epitomized by the choice of Merrick Garland as Attorney General. In his farewell speech last week, Garland said “It is the obligation of each of us to follow our norms, not only when it is easy, but also when it is hard, especially when it is hard …. and especially when the circumstances we face are not normal.” Voting rights attorney Marc Elias said of that speech, “From start to finish, he brought norms to a Trump fight and democracy suffered.”
The next four years are likely to demolish what is left of the “guardrails” upholding the Republic. The next liberal President, presuming there is one, will almost certainly not make that same choice.
As I wrote above, Biden had a number of impressive policy achievements, including the emergency stimulus in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act that has been responsible for so much infrastructure spending. Among other things, antitrust law was re-invigorated, skyrocketing prescription costs were brought to heel, “junk fees” were outlawed, labor rights were expanded, renewable energy sources were promoted, marijuana regulations were loosened, many steps were taken to ease student debt, and industrial re-shoring was robustly undertaken. Child poverty was temporarily cut in half during the life of the 2021 economic stimulus. And he ended the war in Afghanistan. And all of this was done with razor thin House and Senate majorities.
But if he may have accomplished more socially progressive goals than any other President in the past 50 years, including Barack Obama, how many Americans - and more specifically how many voters - knew of those accomplishments in November 2024?
Eight years ago, assaying his Presidency, I wrote that Barack Obama was “a noble failure,” because even though he had several important domestic policy achievements - domestically the 2009 emergency stimulus package, the ACA, and his “evolution” on gay marriage, and in foreign policy the agreement with Iran to stop working towards a nuclear bomb, and generally improving the attitude of our allies towards the US - he had failed to sell those accomplishments to the American public, and there was every indication that Trump intended to dismantle them all. Successful Presidents, I argued, did not suffer immediate reversals of all their policy achievements, especially when much of that reversal was their failure to make their own case.
As I read that piece, I realized that much the same critique could be made of Joe Biden’s Presidency. Because just as with Barack Obama, Joe Biden failed to sell his accomplishments to the American public.
Emblematic of that failure is the contrast between Trump’s COVID stimulus payments in 2020 and Biden’s in 2021. The former arrived as a check signed by Trump; the latter were digitally deposited with no hint of who had authorized them in bank or investment accounts.
Last week in his last interview, Biden told Lawrence O’Donnell that a key regret from his presidency was not taking enough credit for his Administration’s accomplishments, saying:
“ “The mistake we made was — I think I made — was not getting our allies to acknowledge that the Democrats did this. So, for example, building a new billion-dollar bridge over the river, we’ll call it the ‘Democratic Bridge,’ figuratively speaking,” Biden said in an interview that aired Thursday with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, his final TV sit-down before he leaves office. “Talk about who put it together. Let people know that this was something the Democrats did, that it was done by the party. That’s different than me writing a check and me signing a check and saying I did it.”
“I’m not a very good huckster. I mean, and that – it wasn’t a stupid thing for him to do. It helped him a lot. And it undermined our ability to convince people that we were the ones that were getting this to them,” Biden said. “And so – but I don’t think – ironically, I almost spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics, because, I mean, you have some senators in Congress, Democratic senators in Congress saying, ‘Well, you know, Joe Biden did this, and this is done by so and so and so and so, and this is a – the “new built by the Democratic Party” kind of thing.’”
Biden seemed to think that touting his own accomplishments was unseemly. Like Obama, he seemed to think that his accomplishments would sell themselves. And like with Obama, they did not.
In summary, Biden deserves sterling praise for all of his accomplishments, but his fundamental complacency about norms - whether it was making sure people knew about those accomplishments, or making sure that the leaders of the attempted coup of January 6, 2021 were quickly, vigorously, and resolutely brought to justice - has proven decisive. After four full years there has been an utter failure for justice to be finally rendered for that event. Either the Institutionalists failed to move with sufficient vigor, or else the Institutions themselves - most especially, the Institution of the court system generally and of the Supreme Court itself - were not able to rise up to the task. There is no third choice.
The American Project - fundamentally, the Republic that was established in 1789 - was about the Rule of Law, with checks and balances so that there was no King, and citizens could rely upon the rules being applicable to all and enforced equally. As of January 20, 2025, that Republic is also dead on its feet. There will be no return to the previous norms which allowed it to operate. I am sure there will be elections in 2026 and again in 2028, but whether those - or any others for the foreseeable future - will be in any way conducted in obedience to pre-existing rules agreed upon by all parties is an the results of those elections accepted broadly, is doubtful to say the least. The historical Institutions that Joe Biden sought to uphold have been fatally wounded. And for that reason Joe Biden was the last Institutionalist President.
Addendum: In case it isn’t clear from the above, I fully expect all of the forms of the Institutions to continue to exist in 2028 and beyond. Indeed the Roman Senate continued to exist and meet not just during the Empire, but even for a short while after the last Western Emperor was captured and exiled. But just as Julius Caesar said of the Roman Republic - “The Republic is nothing, a mere name without body or form.” - I expect most people will recognize that the forms are on the order of those we have in the past typically derided as banana republics.
