It’s January 20, 2025. Joe Biden will be leaving the top position in the USA. He has reached the peak of his political career and will retire like other former presidents, where he will be funded as a political influencer, travel, and likely write a book soon! Biden is going home after serving as the oldest president in US history. But what was Biden’s political life like?
Early Days and Career
Born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as Joseph Robinette Biden, he moved with his family to Delaware when he was 11. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in history and political science in 1965 and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University in 1968.
After law school, Joe Biden began working as a clerk at a law firm in Wilmington, Delaware. Despite early interest from local Republicans, he took a position as a public defender and then joined a law firm led by an active local Democrat, who named him to the Democratic Forum, a group aimed at reforming the state party, leading him to register as a Democrat.
Politics
Joe’s political journey began in 1970 when he was elected to Delaware’s New Castle County Council. Two years later, he defeated the powerful Republican incumbent, J. Caleb Boggs. Although Biden lacked competitive strength at that time, he campaigned vigorously on issues such as the environment, civil rights, mass transit, equitable taxation, health care, and public dissatisfaction, particularly regarding the withdrawal from Vietnam. He won with 50.5% of the vote.
The thirty-year-old Joe Biden would go on to win seven consecutive terms in the US Senate between 1973 and 2009 until he was selected to become Obama’s vice president after two unsuccessful attempts to run for president. As an active senator, Biden sponsored 1,071 bills and cosponsored 3,374 during his Senate career. He served for an extended period on the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, the latter of which he chaired from June 2001 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2009.
Some of the bills he supported have been significant. Joe Biden supported the "Lift and strike" policy during the Bosnia war. The policy, which sought to lift the arms embargo on both sides of the war to create a level ground, was earlier suggested by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović in 1992. Despite the support of this policy by several US senators, it was killed by the Bill Clinton administration in 1993. In 1999, during the Kosovo War, Biden supported the 1999 NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia over Yugoslav actions toward ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
The war of Iraq and Afghanistan came at a time when Joe Biden was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He supported the war and declared Saddam Hussein a threat to national security. In fact, Joe Biden assembled a series of witnesses that gave false testimonies. Funny enough, he would "realise" his mistake.
Self-Contradictions
One would think that the contradictions surrounding the war are significant. He started off as anti-war but later became pro-war. However, a more notable self-contradiction is his stance on same-sex marriage. In his early career, Biden opposed same-sex marriage. In 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited the federal government from recognising same-sex marriages. He also supported bills that banned gays from serving in the armed forces. However, as he approached the presidency, he became more accepting of same-sex marriage.
In May 2012, as the election drew near, Biden appeared on NBC’s "Meet the Press," where he stated that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage. His remarks prompted Obama to air his support as well. Ultimately, their administration not only championed the cause in the US but also pressured other countries to accept same-sex marriage. In fact, in contrast to his 1996 Senate vote, in 2022, Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and now requires the federal government to recognise the validity of same-sex and interracial marriage.
With numerous gaffes during his tenure, another inconsistency involves his son. After previously ruling out judicial interference, he issued an official pardon for his son Hunter, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases.
Romance with Zionism
Biden’s inconsequential character can also be seen in his romance with Zionism. As a senator, his first overseas trip was to Israel, where he met Golda Meir. Biden has frequently recounted this meeting and its 1973 stories when speaking at Jewish or Israel-related events.
Biden’s closeness to the pro-Israel lobby deepened throughout the 1980s. He began speaking regularly at AIPAC conferences and other events. Open Secrets, a website that documents the flow of cash from pro-Israel PACs, shows that Joe Biden’s senatorial campaigns received $4,229,598 since 1990.
Biden’s frequent declaration that "I am a Zionist" cannot be overstated. His Zionist identity and inconsistencies overshadow any good he might have done, defining his final days in office.
It is somewhat surprising that someone whose career began with anti-war policy would conclude it by signing billions of dollars in support of genocide while simultaneously calling for a ceasefire. In his final interview in the Oval Office last week, Biden recalled one of Netanyahu’s arguments for the military actions. Biden claimed that Netanyahu told him in the early days of the bombardment of Gaza that the US cannot police Israel’s "warfare strategies," given its own long history of devastation.
Biden’s policy of trying to portray the image of a peace advocate on the one hand, while on the other hand supporting Israel’s military actions, will be remembered as one of the most contradictory periods of his career.
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