For better or worse, Joe Biden has spent 40+ years working in government; it has been his career. It logically follows that his presidency offers fewer surprises than the Trump presidency did. For old Washington hands, this must be reassuring.
Used to the freedom of action a private entrepreneur experiences, Trump no doubt found the formal systems of government restricting. He pushed boundaries that, it turned out, were more custom than actual requirements. His public loved it, old Washington hands found their norms violated and did not.
Joe Biden is delivering basically the same presidency George W. Bush delivered, leaning a bit more to the left as would be expected. The “uniparty” is back in charge, it’s boring by design and we can all go back to sleep and ignore government.
For the Washington establishment, this curated boredom is a feature, not a bug. It means we leave it to them to run, while we get on with our lives.
Imagine the life of a country being like a human life with a beginning, middle and end. Donald Trump was our national mid-life crisis, our last grasp for relevance (greatness?) before sinking back into the comfortable rut leading to retirement and stagnation. Trump turned out to be a bridge too far, too disruptive, too garish.
Like most humans do, our nation settled for boring, comfortable aging. Our retirement-ready POTUS turns out to be a near-perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation ... over the hill, all our big achievements behind us, nothing much looking forward.
Now we're on track to join Britain, France, Spain, Russia and Italy as places that were once important geopolitically. Alternatively, maybe it is not too late to opt for greatness, that will be up to the voters.
