Ruy Teixeira summarizes his assessment of the Biden presidency in three words: he blew it.
One wonders how things would have turned out for Biden and his party, if Biden had not taken his fateful turn to the progressive left and their priorities. Perhaps the Democrats—and the country—would be in much better shape. We’ll never know.
I do not believe that the Democratic leadership is using the same yardstick as Mr. Teixeira is. Based on their yardstick the Biden presidency was a great success and voters who did not vote for Harris simply did not know what was good for them.
That is further borne out by the U. S. track record on the things that government does. We spend more per individual covered on healthcare for the elderly, more per student educating the young, defense per capita, more per mile of road or foot of bridge than other OECD major economies. That suggests that as far as our government is concerned the accompolishing the putative objectives is less important than the spending.
