The Biden Malaise: How America Bounces Back from Joe Biden's Dismal Repeat of the Jimmy Carter Years

by Kimberley Strassel

Overview

“In the style of a dogged prosecutor, Strassel builds a devastating case against Joe Biden’s record…THE BIDEN MALAISE is must-read ahead of 2024, as conservative voters prepare to make consequential choices.”―Guy Benson, Fox News & Townhall.com

The bestselling author of Resistance (At All Costs) and The Intimidation Game argues that Joe Biden, like Jimmy Carter before him, has mired the country in weakness, inflation and political unease. ​

Whether in politics or policy, the parallels between the Biden and Carter presidencies are now beyond striking. Two presidents—separated by nearly 50 years—beset by the same domestic and foreign policy morasses, politically swamped by a national ennui. However, THE BIDEN MALAISE will examine why such claims overlook important nuances that show President Biden’s blunders are ultimately far worse. 

Our current president inherited a better situation along with the lessons of what not to do from Carter's governance. Biden, captive to an ascendent progressive wing of his party, doubled down on Carter’s mistakes and created crises that were as avoidable as they are now severe. From soaring energy prices and inflation to humiliating foreign policy errors, the Biden administration's political mess is self-imposed. His political handling of these fiascoes—like Carter—has only made his situation worse. Democrats risk a public backlash of the sort that opened the way to the Reagan Revolution.

Award-winning and bestselling journalist Kim Strassel offers a formula for the GOP to capitalize from this mayhem; one that rekindles the bold and reformist approach of the 80s and 90s, an aspirational agenda that puts Americans back in control of their destiny on issues ranging from healthcare, to energy, to entitlements. THE BIDEN MALAISE is a penetrating look at our current political climate and a book that explains how the GOP can use this opportunity to elect a leader who can restore faith in American exceptionalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538756218
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/18/2023
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	170,820
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kim Strassel is a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. She writes a weekly column, "Potomac Watch", which appears on Fridays.

Editorial Reviews

In the style of a dogged prosecutor, Strassel builds a devastating case against Joe Biden’s record — comparing it, persuasively and unfavorably, to Jimmy Carter’s. But she’s also right that a ‘guilty’ political verdict may not be sufficient for Republicans to secure an achievable and clarifying electoral victory. THE BIDEN MALAISE is must-read ahead of 2024, as conservative voters prepare to make consequential choices.”—Guy Benson, Fox News & Townhall.com

“With characteristic style and pacing Kim Strassel takes her readers back to the future by revisiting the disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter and comparing it side by side with the first two-plus years of President Biden’s tenure… Rarely has such a deep dive into the history of four-plus decades ago mattered so much to the 20 months ahead of the American electorate.” —Hugh Hewitt, radio talk show host of Salem Radio Network and Washington Post contributing columnist

“The 1970s were a decade of opportunity foregone, and our own decade threatens to become the same. Kim Strassel not only shines a clear light on the record and lessons of the 1970s, but also offers the solutions that could enable us to avoid the tragedy of a repeat.”—Amity Shlaes, Author, Great Society (HarperCollins)

From the Publisher

2023-04-24
A conservative commentator lays into the current president with a familiar litany of complaints.

Strassel, author of The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech, juxtaposes Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, linking the two on the undeniably problematic issues of inflation and energy as well as foreign policy. According to the author, it was all Carter’s fault that the mullahs held the embassy staff in Tehran for so long (never mind the Reagan team’s back-channel deal to delay their release until after the election), just as “Biden’s reckless withdrawal from Afghanistan embarrassed our allies, abandoned Afghanis, and made the U.S. look weak” (never mind that Trump’s team negotiated that retreat). Furthermore, Biden exaggerated in the midterms when he “crisscrossed the country recalling the January 6 riot and insisting ‘democracy’ was on the ballot.” Strassel excoriates the supposedly radical-left administration now in the White House, contrasting Biden with the more centrist Carter crowd and drubbing both by comparison with her apparent hero, Ronald Reagan, who “didn’t lead with cultural issues.” It’s a relief when Strassel eventually finishes wailing away on liberals and gets to work on her own team, allowing that the midterm election didn’t quite work out the way the GOP wanted because voters preferred Democrats to “disfavored Republicans [who] had something in common: strong ties to Trump.” The author spends much of the latter part of the book conjuring up notions of a big-tent Republicanism that eschews Proud Boys–like militancy, at least in public, and instead urges that “if politicians want to see a change in the culture, they could start by acting like grown-ups.” Perhaps, for starters, by not insisting that “many of Biden’s people…were picked because they checked an identity-politics box.”

If “Let’s go, Brandon” is your idea of elevated political discourse, then this is your book.

Kirkus Reviews

The 1970s were a decade of opportunity foregone, and our own decade threatens to become the same. Kim Strassel not only shines a clear light on the record and lessons of the 1970s, but also offers the solutions that could enable us to avoid the tragedy of a repeat.

Amity Shlaes

In the style of a dogged prosecutor, Strassel builds a devastating case against Joe Biden’s record — comparing it, persuasively and unfavorably, to Jimmy Carter’s. But she’s also right that a ‘guilty’ political verdict may not be sufficient for Republicans to secure an achievable and clarifying electoral victory. THE BIDEN MALAISE is must-read ahead of 2024, as conservative voters prepare to make consequential choices.

Fox News & Townhall.com Guy Benson

With characteristic style and pacing Kim Strassel takes her readers back to the future by revisiting the disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter and comparing it side by side with the first two-plus years of President Biden’s tenure… Rarely has such a deep dive into the history of four-plus decades ago mattered so much to the 20 months ahead of the American electorate.

radio talk show host of Salem Radio Network and Wa Hugh Hewitt