So You Like Ike? Why Not Joe?

     Dwight D. Eisenhower is consistently ranked among the five best presidents in American history, and for good reason. I am a liberal Democrat, but, as a student of history, I can honestly say that I like Ike, as can many Americans of a wide variety of ages, backgrounds, and political persuasions. So, you like Ike? Why not Joe?

     A key achievement of the Eisenhower administration was Eisenhower's historic infrastructure progress, which included the development of the Interstate Highway System. In November 2021, Joe Biden signed the historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion investment that is the largest investment in infrastructure since the Eisenhower administration and breaks decades of gridlock on the issue in Congress.

     Eisenhower also invested heavily in science: there's a reason the National Science Foundation is headquartered on Eisenhower Avenue. During the height of the Space Race, when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik spacecraft, Eisenhower founded NASA. In August 2022, President Biden signed the historic CHIPS and Science Act. Among other things, the law increases funding for the National Science Foundation by 50 percent over the course of five years; provides tens of billions of subsidies to bring manufacturing back to the United States; and helps propel the United States to the Moon and to Mars through funding and mandates for a variety of NASA programs.

     Much of Eisenhower's foreign policy was defined by countering the Soviet Union and responding to crises in Taiwan, Israel, and various other locations around the world. Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, President Biden has provided nearly $200 billion in aid to Ukraine and led an aggressive global response that has included Sweden and Finland joining NATO. He has also killed the leaders of ISIS and al-Qaeda, provided tens of billions of dollars in support to Israel, increased foreign aid by tens of billions of dollars to Palestine and other locations; organized a multinational support team to restore order to Haiti; provided billions of dollars to Taiwan while aggressively opposing the CCP through legislative and executive actions, and worked to rebuild and strengthen American alliances around the globe

     On the domestic front, Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to support integration in Little Rock. President Biden has made civil rights more of a priority than any president in modern history. He signed the historic Emmett Till Antilynching Act and COVID-19 Hates Crimes Act, appointed the first black SCOTUS justice and a diverse slate of federal judges; took executive action on police reform and cannabis reform; signed the Respect for Marriage Act to protect same-sex and interracial marriage, led the fight to protect reproductive healthcare, made Juneteenth the first new national holiday in decades; and more.

     One final thing that made Eisenhower a noteworthy president was the economy, which was largely quite prosperous because of the post-war boom. With the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan Act, President Biden has helped create nearly 16 million jobs in a single term, the most of any president in one term in American history. At the current rate, he will create more jobs in a single term than any president has in two or more terms with the exception of Bill Clinton, and could easily take the number one spot by creating even a few million jobs in a second term. Inflation has come down by roughly 70 percent in the past two years; unemployment and unemployment claims have remained historically low for years; black and Hispanic unemployment have hit record lows; nearly 40 states have hit their lowest-ever unemployment rates; and the stock market is hitting new record highs by the month.

     This is not the full extent of what President Biden has accomplished, but merely a few critical points to point out his similarities to Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Biden has ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; saved the USPS from financial ruin; taken action to protect survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault; taken more action on gun safety than any president in the past 30 years; taken the most action on the environment and consumer protection of any president in the past 50 years; taken actions to restore and expand workers' rights; done more for veterans than any president in the past century; invested heavily in rural America; and taken countless other historic steps to move America forward. To make America truly great, we have to re-elect President Biden in 2024. He's not just the "lesser of two evils;" he has an impressive record of delivering results for the American people.