Joe Biden, far from the fresh force some argue, embodies an irreversible trend toward homegrown authoritarianism. In spring of 2019, Ron Klain, Biden’s longtime confidant, was urgently called to Biden’s house in Wilmington, Delaware. The aim was to devise a roadmap for Biden’s presidential campaign. At 76, skeptics viewed Biden as a political fossil, his prime was unquestionably in the past. Despite the widespread consensus, Biden maintained a contrasting perspective and felt powered up by the controversies of Donald Trump’s policies, notably his straightforward acceptance of racial intolerance and disregard for international diplomacy in foreign affairs.
In the renowned journalist Bob Woodward’s recent book, it is cited that Biden voiced to Klain that Trump’s politics represented a primal and errant shift in the political narrative. These words carved a significant imprint on Klain, symbolizing Biden’s final political objective: to oust Trump and prosecute an end to the menace Trumpism posed to American democracy. Unfortunately, if the purpose was to uproot Trumpism, we are obligated to pronounce that Biden fell flat.
Even though Biden managed to clinch the 2020 election victory, it merely delayed the resurgence of Trumpism. Rendered useless was Biden’s substantial push for an expansive domestic policy agenda, held to be the most noteworthy since the 1960s. All these efforts turned futile when Trump made a triumphant return in 2024, and the glaring fact remains that no one enabled this rebirth more than Biden himself. The fiasco was not only personal but also spiraled into severe political and ideological implications.
Biden’s political footprint revealed a flawed comprehension of what Trump and Trumpism surmised. Although self-identifying as the antithesis to Trump, Biden grossly misread the essence of Trump. Among the critical blunders is that Biden, like many centrist liberals, considered Trumpism as a foreign taint on an otherwise unscathed America. Biden’s flawed assumption was that anti-system policies are external inputs, whereas in actuality they also stem from home soil and can have both leftist and rightist variants.
Indeed, left-wing anti-system politics can be illustrated through figures like Bernie Sanders of America, England’s Jeremy Corbyn, and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum. Similarly, Trump shares common ground with right-wing figures of anti-system politics such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and France’s Marine Le Pen. However, it’s crucial to distinguish that these parallels are more about adapting to the same political moments or idea exchanges, rather than being mere pawns of foreign powers.
Trump essentially signifies a quintessentially American form of right-wing anti-system politics. Trump, though certainly far from virtuous, embodies a peculiar side of American individualism and rebelliousness. An earnest understanding requires a glance into America’s past, where right-wing anti-system politics have thrived. The roots of this trend trace back to the racial backlash against Reconstruction, to movements like Ku Klux Klan, and to the fear-mongering of figures like Huey Long and Joseph McCarthy.
As Trump mounts his return, we can no longer afford to labor under Biden’s misconceptions, who pursued a regressive political strategy that was destined to crumble. To dismantle right-wing anti-system politics, we must shed the centrist illusions of an inherently innocent American past. It was Biden’s misguided perception of Trump that eventually led to his political deadlock.
Biden, considering Trump as a foreign entity, exhibited a profound lack of understanding of Trump’s domestic appeal. A prominent majority of Americans, fluctuating around the range of 65 to 70 percent in polls, indicate dissatisfaction with the direction the country is headed. Considering this environment, the only viable pathway for Democrats was to embrace a decisive left-wing anti-system stance, a route they spectacularly failed to undertake.
In light of such failure, it becomes a compelling necessity to focus on the political doctrines on the left, which never harbored any misapprehensions about right-wing anti-system politics. Trump’s presidency, rather than an anomaly, is a symptom of a wider, deep-seated political undercurrent. Biden’s political perspective, predicated on a gross misunderstanding of Trump, has proven far from effective, culminating in a historic failure to address the nation’s demands.
At best, Biden’s reign had been a mere interregnum, a short-lived pause in the march of Trumpism. Despite impressive domestic policy initiatives, they ultimately amounted to nothing more profound than a footnote, given Trump’s comeback. More than anyone else, it was Biden who facilitated his return to power, thus undermining his own presidency’s legacy.
Biden’s perception of Trump’s appeal represents a misunderstanding of the political atmosphere in America. Trump, contrary to Biden’s assumption, is not an external transgression but rather the embodiment of a certain American ethos. Trump’s popularity cannot be internationally attributed but must be recognized as truly homegrown.
In attempting to project Trump as foreign to American sensibilities, Biden demonstrated a catastrophic ignorance of the widespread domestic appeal of Trump’s message. A broad fraction of the population is dissatisfied with the country’s trajectory, an emotion that left-wing anti-system politics could successfully tap into. Biden’s approach failed on this front, leading to Trump’s triumphant return and, once again, the flag of Trumpism flying high.
Indeed, Trump symbolizes the shadow side of American individualism. Capturing this essence, combined with a historical understanding of America’s right-wing anti-system politics, becomes pivotal in deciphering why Biden failed outright in his political mission, inadvertently enabling Trump’s revival. Biden’s quest for a restorationist politics was doomed from the outset, a fatal flaw in his approach.
Trump’s return attests to the lasting appeal of right-wing anti-system politics in America. However, there has been an undeniable failure to recognize this reality, particularly from figures like Biden. His narrative of Trump’s nature has proven to be disastrously off-base, contributing to his political stagnation.
The path to victory for Democrats required a decisive tilt towards left-wing anti-system politics, a crucial point where Biden spectacularly missed the mark. The outcome is reflected in a disheartening turn of events – a spectacular failure, followed by the resurgence of right-wing anti-system politics in the shape of Trump’s return to power.
The lesson here is clear: Biden’s political fate is a testament to the critical importance of understanding the political sentiment within the nation and responding appropriately. The Democrats failure reaffirms the need for abandoning centrist illusions about the inherent goodness of American past, and recognizing the genuine domestic appeal of figures like Trump.