On Monday evening, Biden took the stage at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago to say an emotional goodbye.
Outside, there was considerable unrest, with hundreds of Gaza activists wearing keffiyeh garments marching into the city center to accuse Kamala Harris of “genocide” in Gaza.

Four people were arrested by police when they managed to break through a security ring set up around the venue. One snapshot showed a large thug dressed in women’s clothing shouting abuse at police officers in an unusually deep voice.

Clearly, it wasn’t just about Gaza. It was a clash of worldviews, with Western values ​​like freedom and liberal democracy under attack by the trendy new radicalism, a mix of old-fashioned socialism and racial fundamentalism that emerged from Cold War propaganda and the sexual revolution. It all reminded me of Ronald Reagan.

As Biden leaves the stage crying, it’s natural to reflect on his legacy. Perhaps that was part of the reason for his tears. While Reagan inherited a divided country but successfully united it through his charisma and solid values, Biden inherited a divided country from Donald Trump, promised to unite it, and left it more divided than ever, with an orange sun once again rising on the horizon. It’s hard to see his time in office as an unqualified success.

In part, that’s because the 46th president allowed himself to be pulled back and forth by his party’s increasingly militant progressive wing, which tried to dictate policy to him on issues ranging from foreign policy to rent control. Reagan would have stood firm, fought the radicals and united the party behind his vision. Biden, on the other hand, dithered, capitulated and triangulated, losing both his values ​​and his allies abroad in the process – all only to lose his chance at a second term as he was pushed out without so much as a “How’s your father?” by a Democratic machine still heavily influenced by the Obamas.

Perhaps that was behind Biden’s response to the Chicago thugs. “The protesters in the streets are right,” he said at the convention, adding, “Many innocent people are being killed on both sides.” The blatant two-sided war – only one side has been attacked in the most brutal and gratuitous way, only one side limits its aggression to military targets, only one side is a democracy and only one side is jihadist butchers – was bad enough. But it was the “appeasement policy,” to quote Reagan’s bête noir, that betrayed the most damning indictment of Biden’s tenure.

His deplorable remarks at the DNC are consistent with months of rhetorical hostility toward his Middle Eastern ally. It is no exaggeration to say that Biden has been far more critical of Israel in public than of Hamas. Such moral relativism from the highest office has fueled domestic tensions in America, and the despicable scenes of anti-Semitic violence on American campuses after October 7 are still fresh in voters’ minds. In contrast, when Reagan faced widespread civil disobedience on campus in the 1960s, he told university administrators: “No more appeasement.”

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Reagan realized that the real enemy was not Fidel Castro, but the Soviet Union, which was pulling the strings of anti-Western subversion around the world. He responded with an uncompromising strategy of containment and pressure against Moscow, which led to its collapse a few years later.

What a contrast to Biden. His regrettable withdrawal from Afghanistan handed the territory over to terrorists and sent a message to our enemies that the US does not stand by its allies; all they have to do is wait and wear down the superpower and victory will be handed to them on a silver platter. There is a direct line from this debacle to the Ukraine war.

While Biden’s policy toward Israel in its hour of need included many crucial gestures of support, such as sending two aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterranean after October 7, it was sporadic and included several forced pauses in the fighting that depleted Israel’s resources and needlessly delayed victory.

Strategically, the Americans have shown little understanding of the region, the enemy, Hamas’s deceptions, or even the practicalities of warfare. For example, they insisted that Rafah could not be safely evacuated, only to be proven wrong when Israel did just that.

The problem goes deeper. The current geopolitical situation is eerily reminiscent of the Cold War, but it is not the Soviet Union that is pulling the strings, but Iran. Reagan was clear that Moscow was behind the noose that was tightening around America both from without and from within. Today, Iran is the “head of the octopus” whose proxy tentacles reach into Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere, and even into London and Washington.

Weakness is the enemy of any presidency. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas have launched their boldest attacks as Biden has projected uncertainty. Loyal allies, feeling the pain of abandonment, are quietly recalculating. At home, Biden’s old centrist reputation is in tatters, and America now faces the prospect of a radical and divisive Harris administration. Where is Reagan’s heir when you need him?