The problem with Biden's 'legacy' and Trump's 'mandate'
Two fuzzy concepts that obscure more than they reveal
President Joe Biden and his predecessor/successor Donald Trump are being analyzed through the lens of two shopworn words: legacy and mandate.
They are terms that pundits are especially prone to use, perhaps because they are so ill-defined.
Biden blew up his legacy, the argument goes, with the pardon for his son Hunter Biden, after assuring the public before the election that he would let the justice system play out.
Colleen Long and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press put it this way: “By choosing to put his family first, the 82-year-old president — who had pledged to restore a fractured public’s trust in the nation’s institutions and respect for the rule of law — has raised new questions about his already teetering legacy.”
When Trump gave his victory speech, he claimed “an unprecedented and powerful mandate” from the voters. Trump is a “maniac with a mandate,” according to Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia University School …
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