The victory of Joe Biden in the US is not surprising, but something well expected in the current circumstances in the US, but that shouldn’t obfuscate the fact that Biden fights against the odds. Even though Joe Biden had pretty much a single task in this election – to defeat Donald Trump – one thought still lingers in the background, that this election was just a partial success. This election is the defeat of Donald Trump but by no means the defeat of the Republican Party. The Republican Party made a significant advance in the House, and it’s a favorite to keep the majority in the Senate, something which could deprive Joe Biden of a proper entrance in his presidency and possibly mark his tenure. And that’s something many like to point out, as an ultimate failure of Joe Biden. I will try to show why these arguments are not well-founded, looking back in a short history of the US elections after the Second World War.

It is true that, in recent history, Donald Trump is only the third sitting president who didn’t manage to win re-election. But that’s only a partial story. The real magnitude of Trump’s defeat is even greater. If we look at the cycles of the US elections, the most recent one-term presidency is, of course, the presidency of George Bush Senior. However, to this presidency, we need to attach the fact that it comes after two consecutive terms of the Republican, Ronald Reagan. During the second bid of George Bush Senior, the Democratic president was overdue. The only one-term presidency for any of the two parties was presidency of Jimi Carter. But to this defeat, we need to add the strife in the Democratic party between Jimi Carter and Ted Kennedy, which significantly weaken Jimi Carter. In this election, nothing stood in Trump’s way.

That said, this is a sole Trump’s defeat. Any other candidate would probably cash a smooth victory, and that we can see in relatively good results for the Republican Party, despite Donald Trump. Joe Biden was by no mean a strong Democratic candidate, and, at best, he is seen just as a continuation of Obama’s presidency.

This victory is an important victory, but for Biden personally, it’s an accident, whose political career should already set behind the horizon. If Obama’s presidency mostly failed from its dreams, Biden is certainly not the one to bring a new life in the Democratic realm. Biden didn’t win, but Trump lost instead, and there’s nothing more to add to it. Any expectations of a “blue wave” were unrealistic simply because of the historic cycle in which the opposite party has its chance to oppose the previous administration. The Republican party didn’t get its chance to oppose Obama’s presidency, because Trump was barely a president, but rather an insipid entertainer who left a lot of mess. Only that won’t leave Biden to stay idle. There will be a lot of work just in reversing Trump’s presidency.