By Michael Portney

Let’s step back and assess the rubble. The mid-century American ideal of “Norms” — a quaint set of rules we were all supposed to agree on — is long dead, its remains scattered somewhere between Watergate and the collapse of Facebook’s metaverse. But here comes Joe, a self-described institutionalist, promising to rebuild this heap of shattered norms into a shining city on a hill. He didn’t bring a blueprint; he brought nostalgia.

The Promise: Restore decency, decorum, and democracy. Put the guardrails back on. Calm the waters, steady the ship, hold the line. All the metaphors.

The Result: A brief respite in a storm that’s grown into a Category 5 authoritarian hurricane. Biden’s presidency was, at best, a speed bump on America’s high-speed slide into autocracy. At worst, it was a prelude that allowed the opposition to regroup, re-strategize, and come back stronger, angrier, and more unhinged.

And now? The line is gone. The waters are rising. The ship has sunk.

A One-Term Symphony in Norms Major

Joe Biden’s presidency was the ultimate ego play — a swan song for a man who wanted history to remember him as the decent guy who “fixed things.” But what did he fix? Was it the deep-rooted institutional rot? The systemic inequalities? The rapidly accelerating climate crisis?

Nope. Instead, he focused on bringing America back together, a noble goal on paper but hilariously out of touch with the reality of a country that can’t agree on basic facts like what year it is or whether the Earth is flat.

Biden’s “return to normalcy” felt less like a restoration and more like an awkward school reunion. Everyone’s changed, the venue sucks, and nobody wants to be there except the guy handing out “Biden-Harris 2020” pins.

The Ego and the Legacy

Make no mistake: Biden’s presidency wasn’t about saving the country. It was about saving himself. A legacy play for the man who spent decades standing in the shadow of history and wanted his own chapter, no matter the cost.

And now? That legacy is trashed. His name will forever be etched in history as the president who failed to see the battle for democracy wasn’t about “returning to norms” but fighting for a future that isn’t dictated by algorithms, billionaires, and white-knuckled extremists.

The irony? By trying to be the normie president, Biden ensured we’d never see a norm again.

Passing the Baton (to the Authoritarian)

His parting gift to America? Delivering the country right back into the eager hands of an authoritarian successor, turbocharged with the fury of grievances Biden only plastered over. The Biden years didn’t heal divisions; they deepened them. They gave the opposition four years to fester and grow more dangerous.

The Biden Doctrine, it turns out, wasn’t a doctrine at all. It was a placeholder. A sad, desperate pause button on the inevitable.

So, Was It Worth It?

Joe, if you’re reading this — was it worth it? One miserable term to reclaim “norms” no one believed in anymore, only to leave the country more broken than you found it? Was your ego satisfied? Is this the legacy you wanted?

In the end, America didn’t need a nostalgia trip. It needed a reckoning. And Joe, for all his promises, his platitudes, and his empathetic anecdotes about Scranton, wasn’t the guy for the job.

Now, as we stare into the abyss of what comes next, one question lingers: Was it worth it, Joe?

Spoiler: It wasn’t.