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Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.’s legacy as the 46th President of the United States is multifaceted, marked by significant domestic and international policy shifts. Holding the office, at a time of immense pressure, Biden focused on restoring alliances, addressing climate change, and implementing social and economic programs to rebuild the American middle class.
Illustration by The Geostrata
His leadership emphasised infrastructure, addressing social issues that have shaped millions of Americans. Biden’s policies and decisions guided the nation as his presidency unfolded, setting a pivotal legacy.
BIDEN’S WAY TO PRESIDENT
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., born in 1942, was the youngest Senator from Delaware, winning at the age of 29 on an anti-war, anti-drug, and pro-race campaign. For 36 years, then-Senator Biden played a leading role in addressing some of the nation’s most important domestic and international challenges, including writing the Violence Against Women Act.
It was in 1987 that Biden first ran for president, but he dropped out after he was accused of plagiarism. In the time that followed, he worked on key and grassroots-level issues with both the Republicans and Democrats, winning him friends across party lines.
He ran again for president in 2008, but when Barack Obama won the primary and the presidency, Obama chose him as his running mate, and during two terms, as Vice President, he worked alongside President Obama to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, oversee the then-largest economic recovery plan in history, and strengthen American leadership on the world stage.
Once again in 2016, Biden stepped out of the presidential race, only to return in 2020 to restore the Soul of America, rebuild the backbone– the middle class, and unite the country.
Finally, Biden defeated Donald Trump by 7 million votes and became the 46th President of the United States. With his win, he brushed aside Trump's false claims of fraud and was prepared to bring the pandemic under control.
He took swift action to get America vaccinated and jumpstart an economic recovery that created more jobs than any other president has created in four years. The president’s agenda was investing in all Americans.
Biden pitched his candidacy as that of a soft-spoken healer, but he governed more progressive than Obama. He has made his presidency a transition between the nation's older, racially calloused past and its softer, youthful, and more inclusive future.
LEGACY AND LONG-TERM IMPACT
Biden, on assuming the presidency, faced the uniquely vexing task of navigating a fractured United States through a fractured world. Against this backdrop, his presidency has been one of the most remarkable accomplishments.
Back at home, in the United States, he healed an economy that had been distressed by the pandemic and put the nation on a path of sustainable growth. His Bipartisan Infrastructure Law focused on rebuilding roads and bridges, removing lead pipes, and expanding high-speed internet access.
His Inflation Reduction Act was the largest investment ever in clean energy and climate action in history, and his CHIPS and Science Act. They advanced the nation’s economic security, repatriating manufacturing and supply chains in critical sectors and investing in the United States competitive edge in semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
The President beat Big Pharma – negotiating lower prescription drug costs and capping insulin at $35 a month for seniors.
His agenda is lowering health insurance costs, cutting utility bills, and taking on corporate rip-offs like junk fees. Moreover, he nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. He signed into law the first meaningful gun safety bill in nearly 30 years.
On the world stage, Biden restored the United States as the anchor of the free world. He rallied the world to stand up to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, expanded NATO, making it larger and stronger than ever before, and increased America’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
He strengthened America’s alliances and restored American leadership. He also strengthened deterrence by breaking with the tradition of “strategic ambiguity,” confirming that the United States would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
President Biden came to office determined to build an administration that looks like America — and that’s what he did. He served as Vice President to the nation’s first Black President and then served as President alongside the nation’s first Black woman to be Vice President, Kamala Harris, also for whom he has decided to 'stand down' as Democratic Party's Presidential candidate in the forthcoming elections of 2024 and showed his full support.
Even as the president and the presumptive nominee of his party, he saw that the political tides had turned against him. In the end, Mr. Biden was persuaded to preserve his legacy, rather than risk defeat for himself and Democrats nationwide. President Biden has been at the centre of the great American story of expanding opportunity and making real the promise of America to everyone.
CONCLUSION
The United States, as one of the most important guiding forces of geopolitical events in the world, makes its election the most discussed. The decision of the Americans’ influence not only national but global politics. President Biden came into office focused on the home front, determined to build back the middle class and ease the partisan divide.
To this end, he successfully guided through a divided legislature and major domestic investments aimed at promoting economic growth and getting working Americans back on their feet. Ahead, focusing on world diplomacy, Biden re-established the United States’ credentials as the world’s leading democracy and reclaimed the nation’s commitment to upholding a liberal international order.
This impressive list of accomplishments halts with Biden withdrawing from the race, as no doubt frustrated that he could not do more healing to the nation. Regardless, Biden understood the challenges the United States faced and set the country on the right course. His legacy will be immense as long as his successor picks up where he left off.
BY AGRIMA KUSHWAHA
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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