The slow-motion collapse of the Biden administration doubtless produces a told-you-so smile on the faces of his defeated opponent and his supporters, as well as the ironic thought, “Do you miss Trump yet?” The answer should be, “No.”
Upon taking office, President Joe Biden created such a disastrous crisis at the border that he is now being forced to restore former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. The economic recovery that Biden inherited is slowing to a crawl as the rate of COVID-19 deaths accelerates.
And, most significantly, Biden forced a chaotic, precipitous retreat of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a shameful and embarrassing foreign policy disaster that has caused NATO allies to look at America askance and newly doubt its reliability. It caused the needless deaths of 13 service members and the abandonment of hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies to the severely limited mercies of the Taliban.
This is a steep price to pay for ridding the Oval Office of a president who spent his time on Twitter “owning the libs.”
But while it’s no wonder that Biden’s numbers are cratering, the president’s abject weakness does not mean Trump is the right man to succeed him. He is not, even though he reoriented the Republican Party in several ways for the better. These included turning the party of Lincoln toward its newfound embrace of the culturally conservative working class. His presidency also heralded a trend we expect to continue, drawing a larger share of Hispanic voters toward the GOP.
But to move forward, the party needs new leadership, new blood. Trump will inevitably play a role in selecting the nominee for 2024, and that’s fine. It is entirely possible for Republicans to continue the policies of his that he got right, and there are many of them, without rewarding his election conspiracy theories and unhinged social media behavior. His behavior after electoral defeat was disgraceful, and he would only do his party damage if he became its figurehead again.
The reason the public chose Biden, despite justifiable concern about his mental acuity, is that it hoped he represented a return to normalcy after Trump’s crude bombast. There is no need to return to that when there is so much other talent on the Republican side. There are many younger men and women — Trump, if he ran again, would be as old as Biden is now — who can carry the GOP to electoral victory. Biden is so weak that he makes almost anyone else seem strong, but Trump would stand a good chance, if picked by the GOP, of losing to whoever was chosen by the Democrats.
There are two Americas experiencing completely different post-pandemic recoveries. There is the America that people are moving to, including states such as Florida, Idaho, Montana, and Utah, where the job market is either fully recovered from COVID-19 or well on its way, with unemployment below the national average. Then there is the America that people are leaving, places such as Connecticut, New York, California, Hawaii, and Illinois, where unemployment remains stubbornly above 7% and leftist legislators are too busy passing culture-war bills to notice the rapid disappearance of their middle class.
The Republican leaders behind red-state recoveries deserve a chance to showcase what they are doing right. And the Republican Party would benefit from drawing those contrasts and illustrating what new, younger leaders have to offer over Biden.
