OPINION: Joe Biden bears responsibility for Democrats’ loss Tuesday

This year’s presidential election was not about America’s refusal to turn the page on President-elect Donald Trump. It was a matter of the Democratic Party’s inability to turn the page on President Joe Biden.

Pin this election loss, as well as control of Congress, squarely on Biden.

He entered the presidency in 2021 oozing with optimism — a refreshing start in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Perhaps we’d have a much different conversation today if Biden had declared himself from the get-go that he would be a transitional president. Then we’d have a Democratic primary that may have included Harris along with any number of bright young governors that gained the spotlight during the campaign.

But, no. Biden decided, as he was going north of 80 years old, that he was fit to serve a second term. His embarrassing debate performance in June changed the dynamics of the presidential race.

So, like it or not, Democrats — and American voters — were stuck with Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate. To her credit, she did quite well considering she was running on the coattails of an unpopular president. Her losses in the battleground states were by the narrowest of margins, but “close” does not count in politics. American voters decided that Trump, despite his multitude of flaws, could do a better job running the country than Harris and the Democrats. And Trump successfully made the case that the Biden-Harris border policies were a disaster.

My big reservation about Trump was what he did, and didn’t do, during every waking moment of Jan. 6. He tried to overthrow the government that day, and it would have worked if Vice President Mike Pence had obeyed Trump’s command to not certify the results of the 2020 election.

But those who voted for Trump were not thinking about Jan. 6. I talked with a couple of 20-somethings a couple of months ago and I had to refresh them on what happened on Jan. 6, and they certainly didn’t pay heed to former Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s warnings about Trump being unfit for the office. The young voters I talked to were more concerned about their economic future and were convinced that Trump would make things better.

Voters nationwide seemed to agree. Trump over-performed almost across the board while Harris under-performed — not by a lot, but enough to lose the election. So, Jan. 6 is no more than a harmless blip in history and those 34 felony convictions might as well be for jaywalking. His other indictments might as well be dismissed. Trump’s relations with a porn star, and rulings against him for sexual assault, didn’t matter. Voters resoundingly rejected the constant “reminders” from “unbiased” news networks about Trump spouting falsehoods (a.k.a. lies) about the 2020 election. Today, Democratic members of Congress who pushed for two impeachments of Trump are looking pretty silly. And all those clever “Trump jokes” that we’ve been hearing from late-night comics over the last decade don’t seem so funny anymore.

On Jan. 20, Trump will have control over the whole thing — the executive branch, both houses of Congress (not official, but appears likely) and a Supreme Court that basically gives him a free pass to do anything he wants. He’ll put his own stamp on economic policy. The push for climate change and electric cars will be replaced by “drill, drill, drill.” Ukraine might as well raise the white flag, unless Trump can talk his good friend Vladimir Putin into stopping Russia’s senseless attack. Roe v. Wade is in the distant past. And, if Trump is true to his word, get ready for mass deportations.

Two people who should be very happy with the election results are Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, two aging politicians who will be at the height of their power in January. Crapo will chair the Senate Finance Committee and Risch will chair Foreign Relations, putting himself back on Trump’s speed-dial list.

For Democrats, we’ll see what the autopsy brings. They’ll have to figure out a message that lands with voters, beyond simply being against Trump. Voters in this cycle made it clear that they want no part of the Democratic Party’s brand of socialism.

Malloy is a veteran Idaho columnist. He may be contacted at ctmalloy@outlook.com.