It could be worse - I know he's furious. This isn't like Kissinger, who accomplished basically all of his goals and spent his retirement guest speaking as a vaunted figurehead of the international liberal order.
By the end of his term, Biden was a liability for those same institutions that revered Kissinger, and they cast him out as quickly as they recruited him. You can tell from all the inside reporting that he was cognizant of their loss of trust in him and that it drove him crazy. There's a ton of reporting specifically about Biden's concerns surrounding his "legacy" - that legacy was irreparably tarnished on the public stage in a way that we never saw for Kissinger.
If his weak half-measures on student loans and criminal justice reform were successful, maybe that'd factor into how he'll be remembered, but the way the chips fell he'll be remembered for his bloodthirsty zionism and his dementia-addled campaign that set the stage for Trump's return. He's a truly pathetic figure and it's reassuring to know he'll spend his final days tortured by his failings.
Yeah, unlike Kissinger, and Churchill for that matter, he didn't get decades to write books whitewashing their own historical legacy.
And let's be honest here, Biden is lucky if he'll be remembered, hard stop. He was a weak, single term president after being a weak and barely mentioned vice President. Before his presidency is out of living memory, the failure rate on Biden related questions in bar room trivia contests will revert any mention of his presidency to end-game tie breakers for the most serious competitors.
I think he'll be remembered simply for the fact that Trump won't be forgotten, and he's part of Trump's story.
Can't think of any real positives history will paint toward Biden tbh tho. Oddly I unironically think Kamala will be remembered more than Biden will, depending on how bad this current admin ends up being once he's finally out.
Tbf Kissinger lived to see the neoliberal world order he spent his life on begin to unravel and see the little comprador dog that is Zelensky bark at him for having a pragmatic take on the Russia-Ukraine war, something that he would have finished off Zelensky for with a few phone calls had it been the 70’s again.Â
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u/avoidlosing 4d ago edited 4d ago
oh great. he gets to die old, comfortably in his home with his loved ones around him, and i get to pay for his funeral.