Irish Examiner view: It will take time to fully assess Joe Biden’s legacy as US president
An ebullient Joe Biden at the US Conference of Mayors in Washington yesterday, Friday — one of his last public engagements as US president. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP
There will be no shortage of commentary about Donald Trump between now and November 7, 2028 — the next scheduled date for a US presidential election.
But ahead of Monday’s inauguration it is worth reflecting on the legacy of Joe Biden, friend of Ireland, the 46th incumbent, and a leader who may need the mollifying impact of the passage of time to reinvigorate his reputation as a decent man who made the grievous, and complacent, mistake of ignoring his own cognitive decline.
Once lost, it can take some decades to recover the standing of an international leader. The truth of this can be affirmed by the recent deluge of praise on Jimmy Carter, like Joe Biden, a one-term resident of The White House, after his death at the age of 100 at the end of last month.
Mr Carter is generally remembered for a tenure which included a debilitating energy crisis, economic malaise, and, above all, a humiliating standoff and military debacle with Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over the release of 52 embassy hostages in Tehran.
His collapse in domestic support resulted in a landslide defeat in 1980 by Ronald Reagan’s Republicans.
Listening to the encomiums at Mr Carter’s state funeral, Mr Biden must have wondered about history’s verdict on his own stewardship.
At 82, the oldest man ever to leave the office will want to be remembered internationally as the architect of the Gaza ceasefire and for his support of Ukraine following Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022. Mr Biden oversaw $175 billion (€170bn) of financial backing for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government in Kyiv.
Domestically Mr Biden had to cope with the terrible fissures of the “stop the steal” post-election campaign and the violence of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. For his first three years, jobs were added to the economy, and his record on healthcare was positive. All these achievements redound to his credit.
But when the account of these years comes to be written it is likely to focus on a terrible decision to run for a second term. Even before the campaign started critics were muttering darkly that his mental faculties were in decline, and that his candidature was founded in part to secure a pardon for his son Hunter on gun and felony charges.
That narrative circulated relentlessly and was fuelled by a disastrous debate which inevitably led to him dropping out. Too late.
We are likely to learn much more about what happened behind the scenes. Hunter Biden got his unconditional pardon and yesterday more than 2,500 drug offenders had their sentences commuted in another characteristic act of clemency.
This will not change the fact that he is leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the worst approval ratings of any President.
In his address at Jimmy Carter’s funeral Joe Biden said the lesson he learned from the former president was that: “...everyone deserves an even shot. Not a guarantee, but just a shot.”
Joe Biden has had his.
The verdicts are highly mixed and may become worse. His influence will be bookended by two Trump terms. Whether it will be seen as a more optimistic interlude the next four years will tell.
The unique American auteur David Lynch was not only one of the most important film-makers of our generation, but someone who shaped our insights into the dark and enigmatic complexities of modern life.
And left us struggling to find answers.
Lynch, 78, is credited with Irish ancestry, with some reports linking maternal grandparents to Galway. Other bloodlines include Finnish and German. Although born in Montana, he was raised in a rough area of Philadelphia. “We lived cheap but the city was full of fear,” he said later.
Lynch has enormous cinematic credits: , the archetypal cult film; ; ; ; , and a thwarted attempt to tell the Dune story starring Sting.
But it is TV that was his greatest achievement — the rambling, haunting, and often terrifying drama .
It opened with the lakeshore discovery of a young dead woman wrapped in plastic, and it bemused millions for two full-length series, then a prequel film, and then, astonishingly, 25 years later, a third series in the trilogy.
Lynch, an inveterate smoker who suffered from severe emphysema, tended to pose more questions than he answered. What was behind the red curtain? Why did characters talk backwards? What were the owls, if not what they seem?
has its “day”, February 24, when Special Agent Dale Cooper arrives to find out who killed Laura Palmer and consume cherry pie and “damn fine” cups of coffee — hot, and “as dark as midnight on a moonless night”.
Lynch went on to lead us through the most surreal artistic masterpiece of modern times and create many millions of fans.
The potential dispute involving as many as 5,000 workers at 21 organisations such as Cheshire Ireland and the Rehab Group should be relatively easy to head off.
A deal, which centres on disparities in reward between staff working for these organisations paid by the State under a Section 39 pay arrangement compared to their HSE peers, was reached at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in October.
The principle that like work should receive like money is a good one, providing all other responsibilities are equal — all the more so when it affects staff, often low-paid, in professions which involve the care and support of others.
Unfortunately for the workers, who came close to striking in the autumn, the agreement fell on the wrong side of the election and little has happened since — as our politicians have spent time getting their own ducks in a row.
This procrastination has annoyed union members, and their representatives, and quite rightly too — particularly when they recall the overtures that were made during the campaign.
Siptu sector organiser Damian Ginley said senior Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians “were falling over themselves to offer support” at that time. But little progress has been made on re-establishing a pay link with the public sector.
He added: “Fine words ring hollow when we examine the draft programme for government.
Our members’ patience has now run out; they are saying: ‘Enough is enough’, and want to take action.”
It is difficult to conclude that citizens in need would be anything other than shocked to discover that some of their helpers are paid differently to assist them, or indeed how low the wages are in some sectors.
Many of the organisations providing these services, which are often challenging to deliver, face relentless recruitment and retention crises.
Workers will be balloted at Co-Action Cork, the Disability Federation of Ireland, Kerry Parents and Friends Association, Waterford Intellectual Disability Association, and St Luke’s Home in Cork, among others.
If the matter has already been to the WRC, it should not require the further threat of strikes to bring it to a conclusion.
We are ushering in a government which is essentially of the same mien as its predecessor, notwithstanding a few rounds of musical chairs. There is no reason why continuity should be broken on this matter. Give the workers what they deserve, and what has been agreed.
Rather less amenable to a quick solution is the declaration by major health unions, covering more than 72,000 workers, to take industrial action over what they say is the “continued suppression and non-filling of vacant posts in the public health service”.
The move comes just days after the publication of a €26.9bn HSE service plan for 2025. But there is a head of steam blowing up between HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster and representative groups such as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the Fórsa Health and Welfare Division, Connect Trade Union, Unite, and the Medical Laboratory Scientist Association.
This will not be easily dispelled. Health is likely to be a bed of nails for any minister in the lifetime of this new government.
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