No one should forget what Joe Biden has done for America

President Joe Biden is no longer a candidate for 2024. However, no one should be less than incredibly enthusiastic—and grateful—when it comes to his accomplishments during his term. Biden is simply the greatest progressive president of our lifetimes. Full stop. Biden pulled America from the death, despair, and economic hardships generated by Donald Trump's criminal mismanagement of the pandemic that was killing 20,000 Americans per week when he took office. He steered the nation around a recession that economists considered inevitable, generated a surge in manufacturing that is still just getting started, brought new business creation to record levels, broke records on creating jobs and reducing unemployment, and shored up the importance of unions as the heart of the middle class.  He restored faith in America around the world, healed the rift Trump created with our allies by strengthening and expanding NATO, and kept faith with Ukraine as it struggled against an illegal and unprovoked invasion by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He put America back into the fight against the climate crisis, oversaw record levels of new renewable energy, took serious steps to address long-festering environmental issues, steered U.S. auto manufacturing toward the future, and did it all while reaching record levels of oil production and destroying OPEC’s hold over the United States. He demonstrated compassion and took action to protect society's most vulnerable members in the face of rising Republican hate. He ushered in an era of declining crime, declining gun sales, and rising opportunity.  And, for the first time in 23 years, our nation is not at war. People are going to be driving on better roads, crossing safe bridges, and enjoying improved public facilities for years thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The American Rescue Plan not only provided the vaccine that pulled the nation through the worst of the pandemic, but kept money in people’s pockets, kept families in their homes, and kept businesses in business at a time when other economies around the world were suffering. Technology jobs and factories that had been bleeding away from the United States for decades came racing back thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, and that same bill is stimulating basic research whose benefit will be felt for decades. The Inflation Reduction Act not only helped address its namesake issue, but provided funds for electric vehicles, renewable energy, and the protection of both farmlands and wild spaces.  This is a far from exhaustive list. Biden accomplished more in the last three and a half years than any other president has done in two terms. He did it while never sinking into treating his political opponents as any less than his fellow Americans. He never surrendered his boundless faith in American institutions and our founding principles. And he did it while attending church each Sunday before visiting the graves of his first wife and two of his children, all lost to tragedy. It's easy to diminish Biden. It’s easy to brush him aside as someone who isn't a great orator, a visionary leader, or an object of veneration. He doesn’t stride across the stage like a giant. He doesn’t deliver speeches that will be the subject of analysis for decades to come. Biden is an everyman. And he'd be nothing but flattered by that term. It’s not time for Biden’s political eulogy, and it’s too early to talk about his “legacy.” He remains the sitting president. Unencumbered by the exhausting effort to secure reelection, it would not be surprising to see Biden tackle still more issues that have seemed insurmountable. What’s clear is that our nation owes Biden an enormous debt. He’s the president who stepped into the breach after Trump abdicated his responsibility to the country and the Constitution. Biden did more than pull the United States out of the ditch: He set us on a road toward unprecedented success. While the presidential race is no longer focused on Biden, his accomplishments cannot be forgotten. He gets things done—and that’s a big fucking deal.   Campaign Action