Eugene Robinson - Biden inherited a mess. He leaves the U.S. in far better shape, at home and abroad.

It is easy to forget how desperate things were on Jan. 20, 2021, when Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. became the 46th president of the United States.

Just two weeks earlier, thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters had stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory. The nation was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic; in that month, 3,000 Americans died daily from covid-19. There were newly developed, lifesaving vaccines, thanks to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed — but there was no viable plan to distribute them. Schools and workplaces were shuttered; hotels and airlines had no customers; restaurants tried to survive by offering take-out. The U.S. economy and the world economy were on life support.

Four years later, the country is in vastly better shape, at home and abroad. The economy, though still recovering, is the envy of the developed world; U.S. stock markets are at or near all-time highs. Our political system has survived. We have made overdue investments in infrastructure and technology. And in a world full of conflict and danger, American troops are not at war for the first time in a generation.

-snip-

Biden’s critics find it convenient to look past what may be remembered as his biggest success: He guided the country through, and ultimately out of, the pandemic. The virus has not entirely gone away, but getting vaccinated is as easy as dropping by one’s neighborhood pharmacy. And regardless of what Republican polemicists want us to believe, it was during Trump’s presidency when government officials imposed draconian anti-covid rules that sent us into dour isolation — and during Biden’s when we regained the freedom to go about our lives as we pleased.

https://wapo.st/4gOSx1Q