Posted on Friday, May 23, 2025
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by Outside Contributor
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1 Comments
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Traditionally, America enjoys former presidents who, defying F. Scott Fitzgerald’s axiom that “there are no second acts in American lives,” have second acts. Sure, depending on party affiliation, we mock them when they’re in office, fight with their supporters, and theatrically declare them to be the worst president ever, but political etiquette has dictated that ex-presidents are afforded a begrudging respect once they leave office. (See: Saturday Night Live’s “X-Presidents” series of cartoons, which cheekily portray our former executives as literal superheroes.)
Joe Biden’s life looks to have played out as one long, slow, single act — an arc that led him to the presidency in his late 70s. But he may have lost out on the second act of a post-presidency.
This week, we learned that the 82-year-old, who exited office four months ago, was diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Biden’s deteriorating health had already been a question of historical consequence, leading him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. But the news of his cancer changed the conversation from how he will live his final years to how many of his final years remain, amid questions as to the “suddenness” of the diagnosis. Of course, one can only hope that the disease can be kept under control for a long time yet.
What’s undeniable is that Biden’s decision to run for a second term cost his party dearly, and cost him any chance at being remembered in a positive light. Had he kept his word and served only one term, the history books would have remembered him as the man who stepped up to end Donald Trump’s political career. He could have lived out the remainder of his life with a Democratic successor, confident in his role as a MAGA slayer.
Instead, he will be remembered only for his catastrophic decision to run for a second term. His selfishness and the dishonesty of the people around him will forever be a stain on American history.
America used to elect presidents young enough that, when they left office, they still had decades of public service ahead of them that they could use to burnish their legacies. Take George W. Bush, who exited office at age 62: Who knew that a man whom the left once burned in effigy as a war criminal would one day become America’s lovable uncle? Bill Clinton was only 54 when he left the presidency, and despite his many scandals and impeachment, he has spent years as an A-list public figure. Sure, the bitter-enders will never admit that they may have gotten a little carried away during an opposing president’s tenure, but most Americans forgive, forget, and welcome their former nemeses back to civilian life. (Think of the Democrats when they retroactively realized that, as bad as they thought George W. Bush was, they had no idea what horrors lay on the horizon. “We thought that guy was Hitler?!”)
But America’s newfound enthusiasm for gerontocracy — Biden left office at 82, and at the end of his term, Trump will be 82 — reduces the chances of having ex-presidents around. What we do know is that Joe Biden will likely not have a post-presidency career in which he paints pictures of veterans for charity. He almost certainly will not spend decades building homes for the poor or producing films for Netflix.
For Biden, the post-presidency grace period will be too short for the public to forgive and forget. If anything, he has made things even worse after leaving office by insisting he could have beaten Donald Trump in 2024 had he stayed in the race. He is embarrassing both himself and all of his loyalists who lied on his behalf to try to drag his body into another term in office.
The onset of Biden’s decrepitude had been obvious for years, and it is his selfish decision to seek another term that catapulted Trump back into office. Biden’s disastrous refusal to exit the stage until the last minute left many voters with a choice between a Republican they didn’t much like and a Democrat they liked even less.
Biden now looks on as his successor imposes a nonsensical, destructive tariff regime, engages in unethical cryptocurrency schemes to sell White House access to the highest bidder, and deports people who legally immigrated to America while his Homeland Security secretary doesn’t know what “habeas corpus” means.
Deep down, Biden will know all of this is happening because of his hubris. Even worse, he may not live long enough to see whether America rebounds to some sort of normalcy. He may look back on his life as one spent trying to better the country, but when his time comes, he may leave a country in abject disarray because of his history-altering decision.
Biden played the role of hero for the left when he defeated Donald Trump in 2020. But he will be remembered as the man who enabled Trump’s unlikely resurgence. Which brings to mind a different F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.”
Christian Schneider is a National Review contributor and writes the Anti-Knowledge newsletter. He is a co-host of the podcast Wasn’t That Special: 50 Years of SNL.
Reprinted with Permission from National Review – By Christian Schneider
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
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