You've overlooked the fact that Biden's presided over a disciplined, focused administration, free of scandal and until recently free of leaking & back biting.
・logistics of Afghanistan withdrawal and visas for our contractors left behind
・billions of COVID paycheck protection program fraud left unrecovered
・Lina Khan filing ridiculous FTC suits that get thrown out
・ignoring the border crisis for 3 years
・claiming Covid vaccines prevent transmission when they don’t and using that to support vaccine mandates even for young healthy people
・biggest one: conspiring to keep anyone outside his family and inner circle from knowing of his ongoing mental decline without saying who is making his decisions for him
The Afghanistan thing is the only one of those that was overall unpopular, until you get to the coverup of the mental decline, which may yet develop into true scandal.
Erm the fact that the president is senile and the white house covered it up is pretty scandalous. Not sure it's worth thrashing that out if you don't already see that. It's been the talk of the town for weeks....
Whatever Biden might have, he is still able-bodied and of sound mind to be able to read and make decisions on his own. There's no evidence that Biden is so far gone that any Cabinet member or White House staffer was able to manipulate him like a puppet.
Biden also has round-the-clock medical care, as all presidents do, a mini-hospital in the White House, and much of his presidential duties are already delegated to thousands working in the White House. There's also continuity of government, like a chain of succession, in the event he is incapacitated or dies.
History has also shown that politicians are able to carry out their duties when they aren't forthright about their health issues. Most recently, Dianne Feinstein hung out in the Senate until her death and even chose to run for re-election when her staff members went public that in her last term, she had pretty advanced dementia that was far worse than Biden at the debate. Feinstein was "Where am I?" and "Who are you?" with staff in her office. A generation ago, Strom Thurmond was the same way.
JFK projected a facade of youthful vigor when he was suffering from Addison's disease and popped his weight in pain pills. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were alcoholics. Polio crippled FDR, and he died in office during World War II.
There's this weird conclusion that many seem to have reached based on a bunch of gaffes and one really bad debate night, that Biden is 100% mentally incapacitated and cannot do the job of the Presidency, and this has been hidden from the public. What is pretty obvious if you look at all the evidence is that Biden has been perfectly capable of doing the job, even if he is suffering age-related decline. In the days and weeks since the debate, we have seen a rather capable Biden most of the time. What we saw at the debate was disturbing, no doubt, and raised questions about the next four years. But anyone asserting "the President is senile" as a conclusive statement just wants to believe what they want to believe.
So where is he? He allegedly made a statement that he is no longer running for the 2024 election over 24 hours ago, and he is where exactly?
That any commentator would seriously say, "Biden has been perfectly capable of doing the job . . ." after the repeated debacles with his performance over the past three years is ... stunning.
100%. Biden has done what's right to secure his legacy, and hopefully the country will, in time, recognize what an extraordinary legacy it is.
With Biden's endorsement, I'd assume Harris has the nomination on lock. We're already seeing more endorsements (including from Shapiro, who'd be a good choice for VP). I am really looking forwards to Harris running rings around Trump in a debate, or mocking him in the press for being scared to debate her if he backs out (which looks likely, based on his initial panicked social media postings).
She debates very well--or at least she used to in her earlier campaigns for Senate & DA. That's what Trump is rightly scared of, as like Biden, he's a fossil. Unlike Biden, he's a lousy debater and in severe cognitive decline.
But the Right loathes her, because she's a woman and a POC. The GOP pretty exclusively elects only white males. They've made some attempts to change that; but are still the party of white-bread-cream-cheese.
I have some hope that, after the choice of Harris as VP leads to a second Trump term, Democrats will realize the disastrous consequences of hiring based on DEI.
This cements my belief that the Dems are the only semi-normal party in America. Trump keeps losing elections and the GOP doesn’t care. Biden looks like he’ll lose and he gets punted out. That’s how a normal party is supposed to work.
And if they're smart, the Dems will start scheduling debates right away. The more, the better. The GOP rightly understands the value of tons of free advertising, which is why they had so many primary debates.
Trump only lost one election, or zero in his own mind. Both parties are terrible, and now the Libertarian party is also terrible, trying to give support to RFKjr instead of their own candidate Chase Oliver. At least there’ll be some entertaining cat fights in Chicago to watch.
The Libertarians invited Trump to their convention. It looked like a Jerry Springer Show taping. Trump was viciously jeered until near the end he regained the crowd when he promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the guy who founded the notorious Silk Road dark web marketplace. A literal drug dealer.
As a surgical pathologist, retired, I easily recognize a superior dissection. Thank you for your incisive dissection of Biden's tenure. Biden choosing to be a one-term POTUS ensures his legacy as a great President. Somehow, I feel reborn politically as I believe the Dems want to win and Harris will be potent as she is a former prosecutor; her debates with the Donald will not be as they were with Hillary, Obama's great mistake. A balanced ticket with a wise Senator is likely to win, I intuit. Fingers crossed.
I doubt I will see any summaries as careful and non-prejudicial as this.
One question: did you mean Biden HAS or HASN’T been very much of a cultural warrior?
“But that’s just a small example; overall, I just think Biden has been very much of a culture warrior. The exception might be Biden’s move on changing Title IX to accommodate trans athletes, which is causing a big ruckus in the states. “
The whole Title IX ruckus is because the GOP hates Gays with a passion, and in the 1% of Americans who identify as Trans, have found the perfect minority to bully. Wedge politics is the GOP's bread and butter.
I think it's pretty clear he meant "hasn't". There's an earlier sentence where he wrote "education and higher education" but clearly meant "healthcare and higher education", too.
I’m happy for you that you have a politician you believe was the best.
For me, it was Reagan.
I’ll remember Joe Biden as that bumbling character. His inflationary bills that just raised the Federal Budget by an insane amount. The guy who let 10 million immirgrants with no vetting, along with a million got-a-ways who may turn out to be terrorists. The guy who rewrote title nine to take civil raights away from students and is attempting to force young women to compete against men.
The guy who almost didn’t want to help Ukraine and at every turn denied them the weapons they needed. Do I think he had better instincts than Trump? Of course, but he is no less divisive than Trump.
Obama said never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to F thing up. Robert Gates said he got almost everything wrong on foreign policy...That is Joe Biden to me...Each to their own.
Were it not for Biden’s missteps on immigration I think Dem election prospects would have been almost assured (inflation and transgender rights the only other drag forces). A major unforced error.
Thanks Noah. This is just what I needed to hear to help me make sense of this craziness. I hope the Democrats can unite and put together a campaign that can win in November.
I would have hoped the Democrats would have discussed Biden’s fitness for office among themselves in a less public arena rather than having an almost daily announcement from some Democrat or another expressing their opinion. This kept the issue in front of the public longer than needed and allowed him-who-shall-remain-nameless opportunities to gloat.
Biden's policy on Ukraine didn't suck, but it was definitely not great. Yes, he has helped Ukraine not to lose. But he could, and should have done much more. If he gave Ukraine more weapons and sooner, and without stupid limitations on their use, he could have prevented loss of thousands Ukrainian lives.
- Biden didn't take advantage of the lend-lease opportunity when it was available. This could have given Ukraine a decisive opportunity in 2022, when the Putin army was reeling.
- Biden gave Ukraine very few tanks, not enough air defense and no planes.
- Biden still doesn't approve use of American weapons against Russian military targets beyond Ukrainian borders.
- Biden's slow approval of weapons delivery and doing this in insufficient quantities allowed the Putin army to regroup and learn to how to deal with American weapons (e.g., over time the Russian learned how jam GPS-based navigation systems).
In short, Biden's policy with respect to Ukraine was like treating a bacterial infection with small and inconsistent doses of antibiotics. It just allows the bacteria to mutate and adapt, and makes them more dangerous. Not a great strategy at all!
Considering that Trump and the MAGA's would've given Ukraine absolutely zilch, Biden and the Dems are the only sunlight in the room on Ukraine. Better to ask how many Ukrainian soldiers-and civilians--have died from the recent six month GOP blockage of ammunition and other military aid.
Also remember that in the first year of the war, the West was pretty scared that Putin would resort to using nukes. He still might. Which is probably the main reason why not a single NATO nation has sent combat troops.
Russian ECM/ECCM--i.e., jamming--is one of their few historic military strengths. That they've learned to jam many types of Western precision munitions is not surprising.
But I agree with you on F-16's; specifically on the late-model versions. They wouldn't have any offensive impact; but even a few squadrons would force Russian planes considerably further back from the front lines, retarding their ability to hit Ukrainian targets with glide-bombs and other standoff weapons.
I would add the assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri to Afghanistan. You've got the big graph with bin Laden, might as well put that there. I think that was a BIG Biden W.
Both Obama and Biden took out the two primary architects of 9/11. Epitaph worthy.
This post is incomplete without a section for Israel/Palestine. The far left has been howling about Biden's support of the Israeli government. This has contributed to Biden's lack of enthusiasm on the left which led to tepid polling and fundraising.
I considered putting it in there, and then decided not to. I don't think it'll be an important part of his legacy. I think basically no one cares, and leftists are shouting into the wind.
Just like with a lot of Biden's presidency, there is a small amount of "reasonable" critique you can make of Biden's actions, and a much larger amount of "unreasonable but popular" critiques other people are actually making, with real political consequences.
People who demanded Biden do things which are clearly, obviously impossible, are still entitled to withhold their vote. You and I can consider this foolish, but it has real political consequences.
One major through line of the Biden presidency is broad and consistent misinformation among the public and media. The public and media are ill informed about the state of the world, the economy, and the options of the president. Worse, they're convinced they're right, and everyone else who disagree with them is either stupid or evil.
However, it is not possible to "dissolve the public and elect a new one", political leaders must play the hand they're delt. This results in suboptimal outcomes!
I can see this clearly on Israel. I think Biden has made some real, legitimate mistakes in his handling of Netenyahu. However, most protesters weren't demanding that Biden select a different-but-possible course of action, most protesters were demanding that Biden "cut off Israeli weapons transfers in a way that stopped the war in Gaza", a clear impossibility.
Cutting off Israel would make Israel resort to more brutal tactics, and actually stopping the war in Gaza would likely require US military action *against Israel*, something "stop the war" protesters are unlikely to favor
Israel would have also pivoted to Russia. Netanyahu has been exhibiting strongman tendencies, and if the U.S. had cut off Israel, Netanyahu would have sought help from Putin.
A change of administration offers a chance for a change of policy on Israel. Harris might be tougher on Israel, though I don't expect the left to ever be satisfied - I expect Trump to engage in his usual "kill em all" rhetoric
It was conspicuous by its absence. Israel/Gaza is one of the most dominant political issues at the moment, and Noah didn't even mention it. It's not like Biden's Israel policy was any different than any other administration of the past 50 years, but it would be interesting to hear Noah's thought on why it is come to a head now, and Biden's policy choices.
There were protests and everything! I do agree with you that the Left is shouting into the wind about it, but there's still a lot of shouting, and the counter-reaction against the protesters I believe will end up being more politically and culturally significant. But I think you're underrating how many people are talking about it. It's all my younger co-workers seem to care about.
I'd tell your younger co-workers that if they really care about Palestinians, they should go to the Levant as adventurers and take up arms against the IDF.
I/P has marked the end of protest as a positive, transformative force. It incubated a lot of horrible tendencies among activists, like the smuggling of leftist antisemitism into the U.S. (American antisemitism has largely been far right until recently) and a really bad case of mistaking the map for the territory by projecting pet ideologies (anti-colonialism, colorism, etc.) onto a vastly different reality of why the Israelis and Palestinians are fighting.
I know that but as he did with other elements of this summary, where he himself quoted his older pieces, it would be helpful to see his thoughts here on the summary of what he has called “Biden’s Legacy.” Let’s see if Noah responds to this please. Thanks.
And I'm 100% in agreement with your statements about how correct it was for Biden to pull out of Afghanistan. A country where men will not fight to protect their own women.
And Biden's 5 star support for NATO and Ukraine - where men actually fight for their women, and women fight for their men. Ukraine is a couple millenia old civilization. Afghanistan never ever was a civilization.
As Noah said, Biden only implemented what Trump agreed to previously with the Taliban, he only had to implement it well, which he didn’t do, leaving behind $billions in equipment and our translators and other contractors who have probably been severely dealt with by the Taliban. So zero points for making the deal, and negative points for screwing up the execution.
The incompetent Generals at the Defense Department screwed up. The generals and CIA loved their forever wars. They lied and lied and lied about Iraq and Afghanistan bullshitting everyone about how well they were doing when losing.
Secondly. Any civilians left tuff shit. They had 9 months to get out and so did translators.
The equipment as I said.. that's all on the incompetent Defense Department
The withdrawal certainly went down poorly but I wondered how much Biden was responsible for? Like a CEO, he makes a strategic decision but I imagined his generals had the details on how to get us out. Of course “the buck stops here” but I wonder if a general or two needed to be held accountable?
He will be remembered as a one term president who was too demented to run again but while he pretended to serve, he managed to cause the highesr inflation in 40 years while running 6 pct budget deficits at full employment. He’s lucky those “high points” offset his treason in stealing docs over decades and being in the pay of China and other foreign governments while serving as VP.
IMO we had a good run of Presidents in Reagan, GWH Bush and Clinton and nothing great since then.
I liked their comment as I did leave out a few things….like Joe being run out of town on a rail by a convicted felon and professional wrestling announcer (who also stole docs!). Sure, in 50 years the history books will be full of tributes to the “Inflation Reduction Act”, not his humiliating defenestration, his pardon of his gun felon son who cheated the taxpayers out of millions he skimmed from influence peddling, nor Joe’s defeats by the Taliban and the Houthis.
Biden and the IRA will be right up there with Johnson and the ‘64 civil rights act and Medicare.
These are his core audience. Conservatives who buy into every single piece of Right-wing propaganda except "Trump is God", and maybe one or two others; they esteem themselves quite highly for not eating one or two turds in the pile of Right-wing BS on which they subsist. Or as they call themselves, "Liberals" (or "I'm *far* too intelligent to fall under your petty "labels")
I noted one typo: “ Subsidizing overpriced, supply-constrained service industries like education and higher education is a really bad way to run an economy — ”
You've overlooked the fact that Biden's presided over a disciplined, focused administration, free of scandal and until recently free of leaking & back biting.
That's true!
No scandals or mistakes?
・Covid origins/Fauci coverups
・logistics of Afghanistan withdrawal and visas for our contractors left behind
・billions of COVID paycheck protection program fraud left unrecovered
・Lina Khan filing ridiculous FTC suits that get thrown out
・ignoring the border crisis for 3 years
・claiming Covid vaccines prevent transmission when they don’t and using that to support vaccine mandates even for young healthy people
・biggest one: conspiring to keep anyone outside his family and inner circle from knowing of his ongoing mental decline without saying who is making his decisions for him
"billions of COVID paycheck protection program fraud left unrecovered" <-- PPP was Trump
And the fraud is ongoing and not being recovered, and Biden just threw more cash out randomly after there was no longer a need for
The Afghanistan thing is the only one of those that was overall unpopular, until you get to the coverup of the mental decline, which may yet develop into true scandal.
How is what's currently happening not a scandal?
How is it a scandal?
Erm the fact that the president is senile and the white house covered it up is pretty scandalous. Not sure it's worth thrashing that out if you don't already see that. It's been the talk of the town for weeks....
Whatever Biden might have, he is still able-bodied and of sound mind to be able to read and make decisions on his own. There's no evidence that Biden is so far gone that any Cabinet member or White House staffer was able to manipulate him like a puppet.
Biden also has round-the-clock medical care, as all presidents do, a mini-hospital in the White House, and much of his presidential duties are already delegated to thousands working in the White House. There's also continuity of government, like a chain of succession, in the event he is incapacitated or dies.
History has also shown that politicians are able to carry out their duties when they aren't forthright about their health issues. Most recently, Dianne Feinstein hung out in the Senate until her death and even chose to run for re-election when her staff members went public that in her last term, she had pretty advanced dementia that was far worse than Biden at the debate. Feinstein was "Where am I?" and "Who are you?" with staff in her office. A generation ago, Strom Thurmond was the same way.
JFK projected a facade of youthful vigor when he was suffering from Addison's disease and popped his weight in pain pills. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were alcoholics. Polio crippled FDR, and he died in office during World War II.
There's this weird conclusion that many seem to have reached based on a bunch of gaffes and one really bad debate night, that Biden is 100% mentally incapacitated and cannot do the job of the Presidency, and this has been hidden from the public. What is pretty obvious if you look at all the evidence is that Biden has been perfectly capable of doing the job, even if he is suffering age-related decline. In the days and weeks since the debate, we have seen a rather capable Biden most of the time. What we saw at the debate was disturbing, no doubt, and raised questions about the next four years. But anyone asserting "the President is senile" as a conclusive statement just wants to believe what they want to believe.
So where is he? He allegedly made a statement that he is no longer running for the 2024 election over 24 hours ago, and he is where exactly?
That any commentator would seriously say, "Biden has been perfectly capable of doing the job . . ." after the repeated debacles with his performance over the past three years is ... stunning.
100%. Biden has done what's right to secure his legacy, and hopefully the country will, in time, recognize what an extraordinary legacy it is.
With Biden's endorsement, I'd assume Harris has the nomination on lock. We're already seeing more endorsements (including from Shapiro, who'd be a good choice for VP). I am really looking forwards to Harris running rings around Trump in a debate, or mocking him in the press for being scared to debate her if he backs out (which looks likely, based on his initial panicked social media postings).
Are you serious? Have you listened to her speak? She is incompetent and solely chosen for her identity, not her merits.
Her identity as a super-parotitic first generation American Dream immigrant, tough as nails prosecutor? Sound good to me!
She debates very well--or at least she used to in her earlier campaigns for Senate & DA. That's what Trump is rightly scared of, as like Biden, he's a fossil. Unlike Biden, he's a lousy debater and in severe cognitive decline.
But the Right loathes her, because she's a woman and a POC. The GOP pretty exclusively elects only white males. They've made some attempts to change that; but are still the party of white-bread-cream-cheese.
I have some hope that, after the choice of Harris as VP leads to a second Trump term, Democrats will realize the disastrous consequences of hiring based on DEI.
You do realize she has an entire, successful career history as a lawyer and prosecutor, before going into politics?
Interesting that you bring that up. Let us let the record speak for itself.
https://x.com/JohnLeFevre/status/1815261710069985333
I hate these Twitter links that go to a post ending with a colon and provide no way to find the thread.
This cements my belief that the Dems are the only semi-normal party in America. Trump keeps losing elections and the GOP doesn’t care. Biden looks like he’ll lose and he gets punted out. That’s how a normal party is supposed to work.
And if they're smart, the Dems will start scheduling debates right away. The more, the better. The GOP rightly understands the value of tons of free advertising, which is why they had so many primary debates.
Trump only lost one election, or zero in his own mind. Both parties are terrible, and now the Libertarian party is also terrible, trying to give support to RFKjr instead of their own candidate Chase Oliver. At least there’ll be some entertaining cat fights in Chicago to watch.
The Libertarians invited Trump to their convention. It looked like a Jerry Springer Show taping. Trump was viciously jeered until near the end he regained the crowd when he promised to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the guy who founded the notorious Silk Road dark web marketplace. A literal drug dealer.
As a surgical pathologist, retired, I easily recognize a superior dissection. Thank you for your incisive dissection of Biden's tenure. Biden choosing to be a one-term POTUS ensures his legacy as a great President. Somehow, I feel reborn politically as I believe the Dems want to win and Harris will be potent as she is a former prosecutor; her debates with the Donald will not be as they were with Hillary, Obama's great mistake. A balanced ticket with a wise Senator is likely to win, I intuit. Fingers crossed.
Pathologists - they know everything . But always too late.
Trump won’t debate her.
Then he’ll be chicken Trump. Harris will mock him for not debating.
He's an old school sexist scared of getting his ass kicked by a woman.
I doubt I will see any summaries as careful and non-prejudicial as this.
One question: did you mean Biden HAS or HASN’T been very much of a cultural warrior?
“But that’s just a small example; overall, I just think Biden has been very much of a culture warrior. The exception might be Biden’s move on changing Title IX to accommodate trans athletes, which is causing a big ruckus in the states. “
I don't think he has been much of one!
The whole Title IX ruckus is because the GOP hates Gays with a passion, and in the 1% of Americans who identify as Trans, have found the perfect minority to bully. Wedge politics is the GOP's bread and butter.
Yup I noticed that one too. Probably meant to say Biden has NOT been much of a culture warrior.
His entire administration has been pushing DEI in all aspects of the Federal government. How is that not a culture war?
I think it's pretty clear he meant "hasn't". There's an earlier sentence where he wrote "education and higher education" but clearly meant "healthcare and higher education", too.
I’m happy for you that you have a politician you believe was the best.
For me, it was Reagan.
I’ll remember Joe Biden as that bumbling character. His inflationary bills that just raised the Federal Budget by an insane amount. The guy who let 10 million immirgrants with no vetting, along with a million got-a-ways who may turn out to be terrorists. The guy who rewrote title nine to take civil raights away from students and is attempting to force young women to compete against men.
The guy who almost didn’t want to help Ukraine and at every turn denied them the weapons they needed. Do I think he had better instincts than Trump? Of course, but he is no less divisive than Trump.
Obama said never underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to F thing up. Robert Gates said he got almost everything wrong on foreign policy...That is Joe Biden to me...Each to their own.
I think Reagan is underrated, but he also got credit for a lot of stuff Carter did.
One of the things Reagan did, and only because it was Reagan, is he scared the hell out of the Iranian students who believed he would go to war.
Remember that all foreigh policy is built on fear first. Next it is built on mutual interests.
Think about all the countries who cozied up to us or Russia, all based on who they fear the most.
I'll never forgive him for Iran-Contra.
Were it not for Biden’s missteps on immigration I think Dem election prospects would have been almost assured (inflation and transgender rights the only other drag forces). A major unforced error.
"transgender rights" = special privileges for men
Thanks Noah. This is just what I needed to hear to help me make sense of this craziness. I hope the Democrats can unite and put together a campaign that can win in November.
Narrator: They won’t.
I would have hoped the Democrats would have discussed Biden’s fitness for office among themselves in a less public arena rather than having an almost daily announcement from some Democrat or another expressing their opinion. This kept the issue in front of the public longer than needed and allowed him-who-shall-remain-nameless opportunities to gloat.
Noah,
Biden's policy on Ukraine didn't suck, but it was definitely not great. Yes, he has helped Ukraine not to lose. But he could, and should have done much more. If he gave Ukraine more weapons and sooner, and without stupid limitations on their use, he could have prevented loss of thousands Ukrainian lives.
- Biden didn't take advantage of the lend-lease opportunity when it was available. This could have given Ukraine a decisive opportunity in 2022, when the Putin army was reeling.
- Biden gave Ukraine very few tanks, not enough air defense and no planes.
- Biden still doesn't approve use of American weapons against Russian military targets beyond Ukrainian borders.
- Biden's slow approval of weapons delivery and doing this in insufficient quantities allowed the Putin army to regroup and learn to how to deal with American weapons (e.g., over time the Russian learned how jam GPS-based navigation systems).
In short, Biden's policy with respect to Ukraine was like treating a bacterial infection with small and inconsistent doses of antibiotics. It just allows the bacteria to mutate and adapt, and makes them more dangerous. Not a great strategy at all!
Considering that Trump and the MAGA's would've given Ukraine absolutely zilch, Biden and the Dems are the only sunlight in the room on Ukraine. Better to ask how many Ukrainian soldiers-and civilians--have died from the recent six month GOP blockage of ammunition and other military aid.
Also remember that in the first year of the war, the West was pretty scared that Putin would resort to using nukes. He still might. Which is probably the main reason why not a single NATO nation has sent combat troops.
Russian ECM/ECCM--i.e., jamming--is one of their few historic military strengths. That they've learned to jam many types of Western precision munitions is not surprising.
But I agree with you on F-16's; specifically on the late-model versions. They wouldn't have any offensive impact; but even a few squadrons would force Russian planes considerably further back from the front lines, retarding their ability to hit Ukrainian targets with glide-bombs and other standoff weapons.
Very good write up.
I would add the assassination of Ayman al-Zawahiri to Afghanistan. You've got the big graph with bin Laden, might as well put that there. I think that was a BIG Biden W.
Both Obama and Biden took out the two primary architects of 9/11. Epitaph worthy.
This post is incomplete without a section for Israel/Palestine. The far left has been howling about Biden's support of the Israeli government. This has contributed to Biden's lack of enthusiasm on the left which led to tepid polling and fundraising.
I considered putting it in there, and then decided not to. I don't think it'll be an important part of his legacy. I think basically no one cares, and leftists are shouting into the wind.
https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/palestine-is-the-end-of-the-line
Palestine protests matter because the split liberals and leftists electorally and weaken them both
It is unfortunate that certain elements of the far left are simply nuts, but it's true
Just like with a lot of Biden's presidency, there is a small amount of "reasonable" critique you can make of Biden's actions, and a much larger amount of "unreasonable but popular" critiques other people are actually making, with real political consequences.
People who demanded Biden do things which are clearly, obviously impossible, are still entitled to withhold their vote. You and I can consider this foolish, but it has real political consequences.
One major through line of the Biden presidency is broad and consistent misinformation among the public and media. The public and media are ill informed about the state of the world, the economy, and the options of the president. Worse, they're convinced they're right, and everyone else who disagree with them is either stupid or evil.
However, it is not possible to "dissolve the public and elect a new one", political leaders must play the hand they're delt. This results in suboptimal outcomes!
I can see this clearly on Israel. I think Biden has made some real, legitimate mistakes in his handling of Netenyahu. However, most protesters weren't demanding that Biden select a different-but-possible course of action, most protesters were demanding that Biden "cut off Israeli weapons transfers in a way that stopped the war in Gaza", a clear impossibility.
Cutting off Israel would make Israel resort to more brutal tactics, and actually stopping the war in Gaza would likely require US military action *against Israel*, something "stop the war" protesters are unlikely to favor
Israel would have also pivoted to Russia. Netanyahu has been exhibiting strongman tendencies, and if the U.S. had cut off Israel, Netanyahu would have sought help from Putin.
A change of administration offers a chance for a change of policy on Israel. Harris might be tougher on Israel, though I don't expect the left to ever be satisfied - I expect Trump to engage in his usual "kill em all" rhetoric
It was conspicuous by its absence. Israel/Gaza is one of the most dominant political issues at the moment, and Noah didn't even mention it. It's not like Biden's Israel policy was any different than any other administration of the past 50 years, but it would be interesting to hear Noah's thought on why it is come to a head now, and Biden's policy choices.
It is definitely NOT one of the most dominant political issues of the moment. No one is talking about it.
There were protests and everything! I do agree with you that the Left is shouting into the wind about it, but there's still a lot of shouting, and the counter-reaction against the protesters I believe will end up being more politically and culturally significant. But I think you're underrating how many people are talking about it. It's all my younger co-workers seem to care about.
I'd tell your younger co-workers that if they really care about Palestinians, they should go to the Levant as adventurers and take up arms against the IDF.
I/P has marked the end of protest as a positive, transformative force. It incubated a lot of horrible tendencies among activists, like the smuggling of leftist antisemitism into the U.S. (American antisemitism has largely been far right until recently) and a really bad case of mistaking the map for the territory by projecting pet ideologies (anti-colonialism, colorism, etc.) onto a vastly different reality of why the Israelis and Palestinians are fighting.
Agree. Would like to hear Author’s thoughts on this
He's weighed in on this topic at least twice.
I know that but as he did with other elements of this summary, where he himself quoted his older pieces, it would be helpful to see his thoughts here on the summary of what he has called “Biden’s Legacy.” Let’s see if Noah responds to this please. Thanks.
100% superb, concise.
And I'm 100% in agreement with your statements about how correct it was for Biden to pull out of Afghanistan. A country where men will not fight to protect their own women.
And Biden's 5 star support for NATO and Ukraine - where men actually fight for their women, and women fight for their men. Ukraine is a couple millenia old civilization. Afghanistan never ever was a civilization.
As Noah said, Biden only implemented what Trump agreed to previously with the Taliban, he only had to implement it well, which he didn’t do, leaving behind $billions in equipment and our translators and other contractors who have probably been severely dealt with by the Taliban. So zero points for making the deal, and negative points for screwing up the execution.
Nah. Disagree.
The incompetent Generals at the Defense Department screwed up. The generals and CIA loved their forever wars. They lied and lied and lied about Iraq and Afghanistan bullshitting everyone about how well they were doing when losing.
Secondly. Any civilians left tuff shit. They had 9 months to get out and so did translators.
The equipment as I said.. that's all on the incompetent Defense Department
The $billions of equipment story was mostly partisan GOP disinfo, for reasons of depreciation, damage, etc. https://www.factcheck.org/2021/09/republicans-inflate-cost-of-taliban-seized-u-s-military-equipment/
The withdrawal certainly went down poorly but I wondered how much Biden was responsible for? Like a CEO, he makes a strategic decision but I imagined his generals had the details on how to get us out. Of course “the buck stops here” but I wonder if a general or two needed to be held accountable?
He will be remembered as a one term president who was too demented to run again but while he pretended to serve, he managed to cause the highesr inflation in 40 years while running 6 pct budget deficits at full employment. He’s lucky those “high points” offset his treason in stealing docs over decades and being in the pay of China and other foreign governments while serving as VP.
IMO we had a good run of Presidents in Reagan, GWH Bush and Clinton and nothing great since then.
Noah, could we create a comment policy. This seems like it warrants a ban for lying and generally drastically lowering the average comment quality.
It was a very low-quality comment, but it's not "lying". Some people really believe this stuff.
What exactly is this commentator “lying” about?
I liked their comment as I did leave out a few things….like Joe being run out of town on a rail by a convicted felon and professional wrestling announcer (who also stole docs!). Sure, in 50 years the history books will be full of tributes to the “Inflation Reduction Act”, not his humiliating defenestration, his pardon of his gun felon son who cheated the taxpayers out of millions he skimmed from influence peddling, nor Joe’s defeats by the Taliban and the Houthis.
Biden and the IRA will be right up there with Johnson and the ‘64 civil rights act and Medicare.
These are his core audience. Conservatives who buy into every single piece of Right-wing propaganda except "Trump is God", and maybe one or two others; they esteem themselves quite highly for not eating one or two turds in the pile of Right-wing BS on which they subsist. Or as they call themselves, "Liberals" (or "I'm *far* too intelligent to fall under your petty "labels")
Do you pay to subscribe to Noah’s substack or is he allowing free comments again?
I certainly applaud your willingness to wade in at this point, inviting the predictable! Better man than I..
Excellent summary!
I noted one typo: “ Subsidizing overpriced, supply-constrained service industries like education and higher education is a really bad way to run an economy — ”
…like HEALTH CARE and higher education…
Typo "service industries like education and higher education" - should be "healthcare and higher education"