Christopher Knight writes for the Federalist about one aspect of the outgoing president’s legacy.
Having visited a number of presidential libraries, I now find myself wondering: What will the future Joe Biden Museum and Library be like?
More to the point: Who is going to want to visit it? Who is going to want to be on staff there?What has Biden accomplished? Half a century is a long time by any measure, but even more so when one devotes a lifetime to an ever-precarious career in politics. Surely there has to be something good in there to commemorate … right?
Perhaps not. Biden’s life and time in office have been thoroughly ridden with malpractice, corruption, and abuse of power. There is absolutely nothing commendable about Biden and his career, especially about his four years in the White House. If they are going to be remembered at all, it will be with derision and mockery.
How does a library accommodate that reality without descending into full-scale revisionism?
Will the official documents include the reams of tweets, laden with untruths and rhetoric, which may or may not have been composed by Biden himself? Might there be a video running of Biden’s contemptible behavior during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991? Will a kiosk have a loop playing of Biden’s “courageous” decision to step aside from the 2024 election?
When one considers the highlights of the Biden Library, the possibilities run from the ridiculous to the nigh-on criminal. It will take extreme massaging to make the Biden economy out to be a good one. Maybe the library will extol Biden’s bold vision when he bestowed upon George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps there will be a display of the ensembles worn by “Rachel” (Richard) Leland Levine.
Who is going to want to see this sort of thing on display? Who could possibly take it seriously? …
… The future Joseph Biden Presidential Library will be the be-all and end-all last word on the life and times of the 46th president. But it will be a sham. It will take a herculean effort to effectively spin his earthly span of years into something noble and heroic.