Joe Biden’s presidency has been a catastrophe for America

Could America survive a second Joe Biden presidency and potentially another five and a half years of the furthest Left administration in US history? The stakes are incredibly high, and the American people are increasingly worried about what the future holds.

On every front, the world’s superpower is in disarray. Many Americans I have spoken to across this great country in recent weeks, especially those from outside the Washington Beltway, believe the United States is becoming unrecognizable, and is taking an incredibly dangerous path. This is reflected in the latest RealClearPolitics poll of polls. Over 64 percent of Americans believe the country is heading down the “wrong track,” with just one in four Americans saying the US is moving in the “right direction.”

Cultural issues are a growing part of this disillusionment, and Republican governors such as Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Greg Abbott of Texas have championed the fightback against the woke left’s agenda with growing success. They have declared war on the left’s attempts to introduce Critical Race Theory and extremist transgender ideology into public schools and have fought to defend women’s sports. American parents are increasingly concerned over what is widely perceived to be outright political indoctrination in large numbers of US school districts administered by “progressives” who are strongly backed by the Biden White House.

Americans are also deeply concerned by the mounting violence and lawlessness in Democrat-run big cities, from New York to Los Angeles. This is the direct result of far-left “defund the police” campaigns, and the soft-on-crime approach taken by liberal mayors and district attorneys. Recent scenes of anarchy and vicious beatings by mobs of youths on the streets of downtown Chicago, as well as the seemingly endless looting of stores in California, have horrified the American people.

San Francisco, once a thriving entrepreneurial powerhouse, is now rapidly losing residents fearful of stunning levels of violent crime, homelessness and outright Democrat misrule. Ultra-liberal Portland, once one of America’s safest cities, is facing an exodus of stores and businesses amidst a wave of public disorder following sharp reductions in police numbers and widespread attacks carried out by left-wing groups.

Joe Biden’s response to America’s crime crisis has been practically non-existent: the reaction of a deeply out-of-touch president, who seems to care little about the concerns of ordinary Americans. Similarly, his refusal to take any effective action on the vast illegal migrant crisis on America’s southern border has been a shocking abdication of responsibility, showing a callous disregard for the rule of law and the defence of US sovereignty.

Biden seemingly lives in a bubble, inside which everyone believes that his agenda is hugely popular and his destructive path the right one for America. He is trapped in a bunker-like mindset, surrounded by sycophantic aides who are unwilling or afraid to challenge his reckless decisions.

The administration's big-government, high-tax economic agenda is clearly failing to deliver results. Inflation remains stubbornly high, with the Federal Reserve continuing to implement punishing rate increases every month. Biden’s absurdly named “Inflation Reduction Act” will add a huge additional burden to US taxpayers, up to $2,400 for an average middle income household according to my colleagues at The Heritage Foundation.

The United States still faces the significant threat of recession and is incapable under Biden of generating the kind of economic growth the country badly needs. Economic freedom is declining rapidly: the United States is now ranked 25th in
the world according to the 2023 Index of Economic Freedom. This places America behind 16 countries in Europe, including Germany.

On the world stage, Biden is widely viewed as buffoonish, gaffe-prone and increasingly senile. In my role running a foreign policy think tank centre on Capitol Hill, I frequently host delegations of officials from across Europe. The disillusionment with Biden’s international leadership is palpable. Many continental European politicians, especially from eastern and central Europe, feel America is definitely losing its way.

These views are widely shared in the UK as well. On a recent trip to London during a series of meetings with British MPs, policymakers and journalists, I was struck by the degree to which Biden was viewed by America’s closest friend and ally as a genuine threat to the US/UK Special Relationship and America’s standing in the world. Biden’s recent visit to Ireland was panned in much of the British media and was widely mocked in the US as well.

The President's foreign policy has been an incoherent mess. Genuine, trustworthy allies including the UK and Israel have been treated with disdain and contempt, while the President has grovelled to Germany, France and the EU. Biden was extremely slow to act when Russia invaded Ukraine and has failed to come up with an overall strategy for combating the rise of Communist China. And it is impossible to overestimate the immense damage Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan inflicted on America’s standing across the world, leaving a legacy of mistrust and a lasting perception of US weakness.

The antithesis of Ronald Reagan, Biden is driving the US down a path towards destruction and ruin. It is hard to imagine a time when there has been less hope in America than now, with Joe Biden at the helm. The US desperately needs a conservative revolution and a return to the principles, ideals and vision of its Founding Fathers, a world away from the increasingly dark vision of Biden’s America.

Joe Biden’s presidency has been a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. Americans feel less safe, poorer and weaker at home and abroad than they did three years ago. A clearly delusional and strikingly arrogant president has become the puppet of the far left of his own party, and the architect of America’s decline.

With good reason, Biden should be viewed as one of the worst presidents in this great nation’s nearly 250-year history, if not the worst.

Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC