Re-evaluating Biden's legacy

 So, about 5 years ago, I did a presidential tier list.

  It was pretty comprehensive, although Biden's placement was controversial. I was judging him based on his first 100 days, and that led to a relatively rosy picture.

I then re-evaluated Biden in his second year, downgrading him from an A to a C. 

With that said, now that Biden is out of office, I want to look at him relatively objectively.

Honestly, I think a C ranking is about right. Here's my rationale. On that list, I judged presidents by what they did good, vs what they did bad. Good things got points, bad things lost points. And most presidents hung out around the B or C tier, having mixed legacies, or relatively light legacies where I couldn't praise them too much, but also couldn't condemn them. You did have quite a few I also considered horrible, Trump among them. Given I already thought Trump was the worst by a wide margin in his first term, and his second is arguably even WORSE, approaching "literally Hitler" levels of terrible, yeah, no change there. If anything, DJT probably deserves his own special tier of "worse than F". 

But hey, we're not here to look at Trump. Let's focus on Biden.

As I said, C is about right, here's why. In an objective sense, I'd say he's a B. I mean, he got in, he had ambition, he tried, but he failed to accomplish much. There were carter comparisons with the inflation, but it wasnt his fault. His biggest fault IMO was his failure to pass much or have any lasting legacy. Sure, he had some small stuff, the CHIPS act, the inflation reduction act, etc. but nothing really solidified his legacy in a positive way, and given inflation, he left office kinda hated. 

I kinda knew Biden would be a mid president from the get go. Centrist dems have low ambitions, and then Biden failed to accomplish even that. He wanted to do a lot at first, hence why I tentatively gave him an A, but given congress, he just failed to get much passed, and felt very weak and ineffective in office.

However, that gives him a B. Why is he a C? I'll be blunt: it's because his legacy is giving us a Trump second term. See, neutral to slightly positive is B, C is slightly negative. And given Biden's milquetoast legacy, there is one stain that I cannot absolve him of, and that's his decision to run again in 2024. he was too old, he was clearly unqualified in retrospect, he couldnt handle the job. And honestly? He should have passed the torch to the next generation. We should've had a competitive primary, not the one where we gave it to him on a silver platter and said anyone who thought he couldn't win "just wanted Trump to win." 

And then after we did, oh, gee, he flops in the debate, it's a total disaster, he refuses to back out. He's delusional and thinks he can win. Eventually he turns the keys over to harris, and harris is so loyal she refuses to distance herself from him, which causes her to go down with him. 

Seriously, Biden's ultimate legacy is a whole lot of nothing, followed by a second Trump term. And honestly, a second trump term is a stain in and of itself. because Trump is THE worst president, and he's even more unhinged in his second term. Oh, and his justice department should've been prosecuting him, but acted slowly, and allowed him to functionally get back into office before the trials could be held. 

So basically, we got a second term of the worst guy available, because of him. Arguably, a C is too good for him. Looking at my list, and the D and F tier guys who allowed bad things to happen on their watch and were arguably responsible for them, you could argue that he deserves worse, maybe a D. But no, I'll give him a C. Because I do think that he did low key have some of the most progressive policies we had seen in a generation. He governed to the left of Clinton, left of Obama, and arguably was closer to say, Truman or someone like that, than a neoliberal. He was never fully progressive, he wasnt an FDR, he wasn't a Johnson. He wasnt bold enough to be those guys. He wasnt successful enough either. But idk, he tried. he failed, but he tried. And he did walk away with SOME mild gains, even if Trump functionally undid them all. 

But again, running for office again, a decision that doomed us to a second Trump presidency, will be his ultimate legacy, if he will be remembered for one thing, it will be "hey, remember when we ran that guy who was so old that he choked that debate and gave us Trump again?" Yeah, you are LITERALLY the guy who gave us Trump again. That's his legacy. Other than that, he was mildly positive, he tried, he always seemed to fail, but at least he tried, and he was more competent than he gets credit for. The problem is, that wasn't what people wanted. They wanted solutions, and Biden was light on them. So again, we're suffering the hellscape of a Trump second term because he didn't know when it was time to ride off into the sunset and leave the country into the hands of a new generation. And by the time he did, it was too late, his replacement was to associated with him, and it tanked her too. I think that this whole clusterfudge of events will be studied by historians for many decades and even centuries to come. Like, how did we get here? I have my own perspective on it, and I suspect it will be vindicated by history. But yeah. I think that the "Jimmy Carter 2.0" of my last evaluation will stick, although to be fair, Trump is even MORE jimmy carter like given not only did he cause inflation, he's also caused a literal 1970s oil crisis again, and that's just the tip of THAT iceberg. Somehow, the worst guys all at once is basically accurate. I would even invoke godwin's law and go "literally Hitler" given the concentration camp thing and brutal attempts to repress our freedoms. Really, I hate to go full godwin, but Trump deserves it.

And I know this isn't about trump, but again, Biden's legacy will forever be defined by his failure to prevent this psycho from getting in office again, so...yeah, it needs to be discussed. 

So yeah. C rank. Maybe even D given how Trump arguably deserves a tier worse than F. But I think C is more appropriate. If not for that, i'd give him a B. he did some mildly progressive things, he didn't govern badly, but he didn't do anything particularly amazing either that warrants an A rank. Again, his decision to run for president again, and ultimately costing the dems the 2024 election really brings him down.