When Joe Biden took office as president of the United States, he insisted he was driven to run for the White House by the noble desire to preserve and protect democracy. In his inauguration speech, he vowed to “restore the soul of America” after the trauma of Donald Trump’s time in office, which ended with all that bogus talk of electoral theft and a mob attempting to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
Then in his first speech a few weeks later to a foreign audience, he said the world stood at an “inflection point” in the struggle between autocracy and freedom, declaring that his “galvanising mission” was to “demonstrate that democracy can still deliver for our people in this changed world”.
These were hopeful words for those of us sharing Biden’s fears over the future as liberal values come under sustained global attack. The veteran Washington insider, taking office at a time of turbulence, seemed to understand the interwoven nature of threats to democracy as it came under attack both within his own borders and around the world from a burgeoning alliance of brutal dictatorships.
This stance contrasted with the complacency of his counterparts in London, Paris and Berlin, so frequently cavalier over the fragility of democracy and failing to see the need to keep fighting constantly for freedom.
Four years later, as Biden comes to the end of his solitary term of office and for all his fine words, there is only disappointment at the failure of this central mission.
The 46th president departs with a decent track record in many areas, most notably an economy that is powering ahead after the pandemic, and he managed to pass significant domestic measures despite deep tribal fissures in Washington.
Earlier this year, historians even ranked him as the 14th best holder of this office – slightly ahead of Ronald Reagan and with his tarnished predecessor struck firmly in last place. Yet now Biden is going, Trump is returning seemingly bent on revenge for his downfall and the free world is watching on nervously.
The tragedy of Biden is that he must shoulder much of the blame for letting Trump back to the White House – accompanied by bigots, billionaires, conspiracy theorists and Kremlin patsies being picked for many influential positions, even overseeing intelligence and security.
Biden planned originally on being a one-term president to heal the nation’s wounds and restore its reputation around the world. But then he clung to the ridiculous, ego-fuelled fantasy that he could run again despite obvious mental and physical decline – an unforgivable act of selfishness that badly damaged his party, which had to support him.
His belated withdrawal after a bumbling debate performance meant there was no battle to succeed him that might have thrown up and tested strong contenders, resulting in a dismal candidate. We will never know if an alternative to Kamala Harris – such as Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, or transport secretary Pete Buttigieg – could have beaten Trump. Perhaps the legacy of pandemic, curse of inflation and scars of culture wars would have defeated them too.
But we do know that even spending $1.8bn (£1.4bn) by the Democrats failed to cover up obvious defects in a wooden, second-rate candidate. And the Republicans swept to a crushing victory that gives them untrammelled powers in Washington under a highly divisive leader who is contemptuous of democratic norms and sucks up to strongmen dictators.
Already we can see the impact of Trump’s return. There is mounting fear Ukraine will be forced into a highly-flawed peace deal that fails to offer sufficient security from Russia’s imperial ambitions while giving away chunks of the country as the president-elect dances to Vladimir Putin’s tune.
Biden deserves credit for supporting Kyiv after the Kremlin’s full-scale attack. Yet the flow of military aid has been hesitant and sluggish from the start since Washington was intimidated by Moscow’s threats, failing to see Russia’s weakness with national security adviser Jake Sullivan routinely misreading events. So Ukraine staved off collapse with its tenacious fightback but, due to all the White House dithering, was restrained from a possible victory that could have bolstered democracy and reshaped the world.
Then the strength of Nato’s stand – backing Ukraine in defence of democracy – was undermined by Biden’s reluctance to criticise Israel even when its response to Hamas atrocities was indefensibly heavy-handed. This amounted to collective punishment of Palestinians with its brutal military barrage in Gaza – leading to accusations from the United Nations, International Criminal Court and respected human rights groups that its hard-right leadership is unleashing war crimes – while sanctioning more settler violence on the West Bank.
Now Israel, so reliant on US support, is undermining Syria’s frail hopes of securing a better future after the fall of Bashar al-Assad by grabbing land and launching hundreds of air strikes. The silence of friends does not help the cause of freedom.
This month saw one final betrayal of democracy by Biden with the disgraceful use of the presidential pardon to deliver sweeping protection for his wayward son. It must have been a terrible dilemma, of course, to know he held the power to stop his child going to prison on gun charges. But he told the American people he would not grant a pardon for Hunter. Such cynical abuse of power fuels public dismay over the fetid arrogance of a political elite that looks after itself.
And it provides cover for Trump and his team to abuse the legal system for their own ends, whether to protect their own supporters or to pursue foes. Slowly but surely, they chip away collectively at democracy and corrode trust in their corrupted system.
As Biden said six months ago – standing on the beach at Normandy to hail brave young men such as my father who fought there on D-Day to save our freedoms from fascism – it is up to all of us to ensure democracy endures.
Sadly, all too often we are let down by our leaders – as this president has proved once again.
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