Joe Biden did not simply alter his chances at winning a second term last night. He altered his legacy. It will remain forever changed, regardless of the outcome in November.
In 2020 Biden was chosen to be president – first by his party, then by the public – to take some toxicity and radicalism out of the debate. This centre-left Democrat (or centre-left compared to the rest of his party, at least) had a decades-long history of working with his Republican counterparts. He had the once common, now miraculous, ability to get along with (and even on occasion praise) politicians outside of his own party.
This was a dereliction of duty, a danger to the democratic process
Voters liked it. He trumped Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda in the primaries; he weathered Trump’s rage on the national stage. The president-elect was sent to Washington, DC with more votes behind him than any other presidential candidate in history, and he used that mandate to talk about unification – a forgotten concept during the previous four years.
The strong
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