Then in his first speech a few weeks later to a foreign audience, he said the world stood at an “inflection point” in the struggle between autocracy and freedom, declaring that his “galvanising mission” was to “demonstrate that democracy can still deliver for our people in this changed world”.
This stance contrasted with the complacency of his counterparts in London, Paris and Berlin, so frequently cavalier over the fragility of democracy and failing to see the need to keep fighting constantly for freedom.
The 46th president departs with a decent track record in many areas, most notably an economy that is powering ahead after the pandemic, and he managed to pass significant domestic measures despite deep tribal fissures in Washington.
The tragedy of Biden is that he must shoulder much of the blame for letting Trump back to the White House – accompanied by bigots, billionaires, conspiracy theorists and Kremlin patsies being picked for many influential positions, even overseeing intelligence and security.
His belated withdrawal after a bumbling debate performance meant there was no battle to succeed him that might have thrown up and tested strong contenders, resulting in a dismal candidate. We will never know if an alternative to Kamala Harris – such as Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, or transport secretary Pete Buttigieg – could have beaten Trump. Perhaps the legacy of pandemic, curse of inflation and scars of culture wars would have defeated them too.
Already we can see the impact of Trump’s return. There is mounting fear Ukraine will be forced into a highly-flawed peace deal that fails to offer sufficient security from Russia’s imperial ambitions while giving away chunks of the country as the president-elect dances to Vladimir Putin’s tune.
There is no war on Christmas – just the values it represents
Read MoreThen the strength of Nato’s stand – backing Ukraine in defence of democracy – was undermined by Biden’s reluctance to criticise Israel even when its response to Hamas atrocities was indefensibly heavy-handed. This amounted to collective punishment of Palestinians with its brutal military barrage in Gaza – leading to accusations from the United Nations, International Criminal Court and respected human rights groups that its hard-right leadership is unleashing war crimes – while sanctioning more settler violence on the West Bank.
This month saw one final betrayal of democracy by Biden with disgraceful use of the presidential pardon to deliver sweeping protection for his wayward son. It must have been a terrible dilemma, of course, to know he held the power to stop his child going to prison on gun charges. But he told the American people he would not grant a pardon for Hunter. Such cynical abuse of power fuels public dismay over the fetid arrogance of a political elite that looks after itself.
As Biden said six months ago – standing on the beach at Normandy to hail brave young men such as my father who fought there on D-Day to save our freedoms from fascism – it is up to all of us to ensure democracy endures.
Sadly, all too often we are let down by our leaders – as this president has proved once again.
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