Joe Biden has now been the President of the United States for 100 Days, and boy has it been quite a ride. It was FDR that once said that the first 100 days of a President’s term determine how the rest of the presidency will go, so the first 100 days is regarded as a measure of how competent the President is. 

Frankly, Biden inherited a mess. A global pandemic that has claimed over 575,000 American lives, a chaotic Black Lives Matter movement, an executive branch of government that is recovering from the aftershock of Trump’s presidency, aggressive fanatics who claim that Biden is not the president, a surge of border issues, aggression from foreign powers, and the everlasting problem of climate change. It would be a lie to say that Biden does not have a lot on his plate.

Furthermore, it has been proven that Americans trust the government less to consistently do the right thing. Data gathered by the Pew Research Center shows that in 1964, 70% of the American public trusted the government to do the right thing, but in recent times that has dropped to an alarming 20% of the public trusting the government to consistently do the right thing. Biden also has to show Americans that the government still knows how to govern.

It is difficult to juggle all of these issues, but overall, experts say that Biden is handling things well. The American public agrees… generally. Polls from 538 show that 53.8% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency, 41% disapprove, and the rest are unsure. It is my firm opinion however, that Biden is doing very well, but could be doing better. 

Let me explain: One of the greatest issues during the Trump presidency was his inability to understand and communicate between different branches of government and various committees. This made it extremely difficult to work with him, and in consequence, many of his goals were not achieved. However, Biden should not have this issue. He understands how the government operates (having first been in an elected position in 1970) and is able to communicate well and effectively. Joe Biden has done just that with the Coronavirus pandemic, with the United States having one of the smoothest recoveries of the nations in the west. Unfortunately, the same level of success cannot be measured for other areas of issues around our country. To understand that more, greater detail is required on all of the issues Biden is facing.

Coronavirus

One of Biden’s main messages during his election campaign was to help the United States recover from Coronavirus by putting people first rather than business. This is a very logical plan, which he is successfully following through on. 

At the start of his presidency, Biden set the goal of getting 100 million vaccinated Americans by the first 100 days of his presidency. When he reached that goal, he set out a new goal to have 200 million vaccinations by the first 100 days of his presidency. By April 30th, more than 95 million Americans have been fully vaccinated. Compared to other countries, this is incredible. Other countries, such as those in the European Union, which should be able to have the management abilities to effectively distribute the vaccine, are in pure chaotic disorganization. 

Biden has invested heavily in vaccine distribution, as well as stimulus checks. He has spent over 1.5 trillion dollars on vaccine distribution, development, and most importantly, stimulus checks. The stimulus package that everyone received benefited everyone, as it helped small and big business, and gave people something to look forward to. 

However experts astutely point out that Biden is taking too much credit for the vaccine rollout. The vaccines were developed under the Trump presidency, as was the distribution plan. The United States vaccine rollout is incredible, but people should not overlook the fact that it was mostly devised by Trump and his administration.

Black Lives Matter Movement

The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 but spiked it’s influence after the death of George Floyd, and escalated into a violent mess. Initially, Biden took an uneasy stance with it. He stated multiple times that he is sickened by the “structural racism”, but did not officially declare himself in favor of the BLM movement. 

That being said, the Biden administration has declared themselves in favor of the movement after the George Floyd hearing. Both Biden and his Vice President, Kamala Harris have said that they are planning on bringing justice and intend on making the police force both more just and held accountable. However this is something that could easily be debated as being a bad thing, because when you defund the police (as seen in Minneapolis) crime goes up, and no one wants to join the police force in fear of being put in jail for doing their job.

Biden has taken a stance against the new voting system in Georgia. The system, implemented by the Georgia Republicans, restricts African-Americans from voting. Biden has called this, “Jim Crow in the 21st century”. Biden has garnered support from over 100 corporate leaders and businesses to form a backlash against voting rights by having multiple companies partially withdraw financially from Georgia.

The Executive Branch

After Trump was impeached for the second time, lost the election, and then incited the capitol riot, the Republican party imploded unto itself. Immediately after the capitol riots, prominent Republicans such as Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham spoke out against the former president, saying that they would no longer support him. This has caused a split in Republican Senators and Representatives. The number of Republicans opposed to Trump’s beliefs has increased, but a number of politicians have stayed loyal to Trump. The most obvious explanation for this is that they fear that in their next election, Trump will support a different Republican who will do as he says. 

Biden has outspoken against the filibuster, a loophole that has stopped multiple Democratic bills from being passed. It is a strategy used by Mitch McConnell as a tool to defend the diminishing popularity of the Republican party. Although Republicans admit that the filibuster only serves as a way to protect their views to only their own benefit, they are not willing to throw it away. Biden throughout his presidency will have trouble with the Republican Senate, who will oppose his every bill in fear of angering Trump.

Something that needs to be remembered is that politics is an ungraceful game. If the Senate was Republican controlled, I would bet that 1, 2, or 3 Republicans would vote in favor of Biden’s bills. Here is why: Republicans are not evil. They are a tribe of ideas that is getting consistently smaller, one that likes its voice to be heard, but also wants (usually) the best for their citizens. The reason why Republicans aren’t voting with Biden is because the Bill will pass even if they do not vote. The Senate is split, so if the vote is 50/50, the Vice President (Kamala Harris) decides who wins. The Republicans can vote for their traditional ideals, still have beneficial bills passed, and not anger Trump.

Capitol Riot and Conspiracies

In his presidency, Trump spread a number of lies that turned into dangerous theories or acts of violence. These lies are still impacting the American public. The nation shook when the capitol was stormed by Trumpist Republicans on January 6th. Many of those stormers were supporters of the theory QAnon. QAnon is a dangerous conspiracy theory that puts Democrats out to be child killers, and Trump to be a saviour of America (although it is much more disturbing than that brief explanation). Biden has been strongly against QAnon, but there is little a president can do to stop people from their own minds. However, Biden has acted on the Capitol Riot. He never shies away from condemning it, and by now the US government has caught over 410 rioters.

Border Issues

In recent years, Central America has found itself in a very rough patch. Conflict, danger, and economic instability only grew worse with the Coronavirus. Since Biden got elected, the amount of immigration “encounters” has grown 71%. Biden called this a crisis, but his team was quick to say that he misused the word. By the rate it is going, there will be 2 million people at the border by the end of the year.

This seems to be the only major problem that Biden is not handling effectively. There is no end in sight, and although Biden does have a policy favorable to immigrants, the country has much greater threats at the moment than immigration reform. Republicans have caught on to this, and consistently speak of how the children and parents are treated there, and how the problem is an issue of Biden mishandling things. The way I see it, it is a mixture of Biden not handling it greatly and immigrants misinterpreting what the Biden presidency is. Biden will still put American citizens first.

Foreign Aggression

Although the situation is far from being resolved and we are yet to see how it will conclude, Biden has had to deal with Russian aggression. Russia marched over 80,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, something that has been viewed as Putin seeing how Biden will react. For the last 4 years, Trump was rather easy on Russia, and when Putin did something bad, Trump would lift tariffs off of Russia so that Putin would stop doing that bad thing. 

Biden has taken a different stance. Instead of going easy, he sent a battleship to Ukraine, pledged full support of Ukraine, and imposed more tariffs on Russia. Although the situation is yet to play out, it is clear that this is a sign that Biden’s message that “America is back” is not going into the void. America under a Biden presidency will stand up to aggression, not back away from it. This bold step is unquestionably one in the right direction.

Climate Change

One of Biden’s very first actions as President was rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. Biden campaigned a promise that he would start what would become a “Green America”. He has plans which would theoretically have the United States be 100% carbon neutral in 2050. 

On Earth day, Biden hosted a huge virtual conference with dozens of world leaders, where they discussed carbon emissions. Biden pledged to reduce the United State carbon emotions by 50% by 2030. This is a huge goal, but definitely possible. After this, the Green New Deal, a plan to cut greenhouse gas made by liberal Democrats was brought to the public again. Biden has not endorsed this plan, likely because it is unpopular among multiple demographics for the predicted damage it might do to the economy.

Infrastructure/Job Plan

Biden has suggested a 2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill. This plan will undoubtedly create jobs across America, and help transportation and the economy. As of now, the Biden presidency says they have created over 1.3 million jobs. This bill also includes strengthening the grid so that our electricity and internet won’t cut out. The only issue with this is that it is 2 trillion dollars. Biden says that the plan will pay for itself, and it probably will, but it would be false to say that it is somewhat, per say dangerous to throw money left and right. Overall, the infrastructure plan is a risk, but will likely benefit people across the nation.

Conclusion

Admittedly, many things were easy for Biden. The vaccine and its distribution plan was largely devised under the Trump presidency, and it is easy to say no to foreign aggression. This does not diminish his accomplishments though, as the United States is having the swiftest recovery from the worst position in terms of Coronavirus. The Infrastructure and Job plans will increase quality of life for nearly everyone, as well as provide millions of jobs.

Biden is not perfect. He has blunders, and not only does he need to work with the Republicans, he also needs to cooperate with the liberal side of his party. But most of all, he is calm. With the last 4 years being Trump doing something completely insane every 3 days, I was surprised, nay alarmed when Biden wasn’t causing a scandal every half hour. But that seems to be Biden’s presidency: remaining calm in hard times and just moving forward, taking care of what you can.

Sources:

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