No One Wants A Biden Presidential Library

During the California leg of a year-long journey across America, I devoted a day to visiting two presidential libraries within a short distance of each other. I started that morning at the Richard Nixon Presidential Museum and Library and a few hours later proceeded to that of Ronald Reagan. Some months earlier I had also stopped at the Harry Truman Library and Museum in Missouri.

Every president is actively encouraged to plan and construct an official repository of his documents from his time in office. The resulting library is more than the collection of the paperwork generated during his tenure, however. It is also where items like official gifts to the president and his spouse are housed. At the Reagan Library, this includes many of the stunning outfits worn by Nancy Reagan.

Consequently, the libraries have also become the definitive museums of their respective presidents. The Ronald Reagan Library’s exhibits are absolutely enormous. A prospective visitor would be wisely cautioned to budget for no less than three hours there, including time to enter the full-size Air Force One that the facility houses.

I found the libraries to be fascinating. They display the life and times of their subjects, emphasizing the service and achievements of each. In many cases, as with the three I visited, the libraries also serve as the final resting places of the presidents and their immediate family members.

I spent some time visiting the Richard Nixon Library. The Nixon years were colorful ones — sometimes for good, sometimes not — and his library is dedicated to fully conveying that. But long before planning to visit, I had been curious about how the Nixon Library would address the matter of Watergate.

I was absolutely astounded by what I found. The Nixon Library doesn’t avoid the subject of Watergate; it practically thrusts it upon visitors. Every event of the affair is chronicled; each person involved in the burglary, the cover-up, and the investigation is profiled. The 18 minutes of silence is there for your listening pleasure. The consequences meted out to the schemers are detailed. An entire gallery of Nixon’s official biography is devoted to the lowest point of his otherwise remarkable life and career, and it is utterly startling to behold. The word “contrite” does it no justice.

Yet in spite of Watergate, the Nixon Library confidently proclaims the life and successes of its subject. The docent I spent time conversing with was a bright and articulate young man fresh out of college. He radiated great pride at being among the staff of the Nixon Library, and he was a ready resource of information about the 37th president. He was honored to be there, as well he should have been.

Having visited a number of presidential libraries, I now find myself wondering: What will the future Joe Biden Museum and Library be like?

More to the point: Who is going to want to visit it? Who is going to want to be on staff there?

What has Biden accomplished? Half a century is a long time by any measure, but even more so when one devotes a lifetime to an ever-precarious career in politics. Surely there has to be something good in there to commemorate … right?

Perhaps not. Biden’s life and time in office have been thoroughly ridden with malpractice, corruption, and abuse of power. There is absolutely nothing commendable about Biden and his career, especially about his four years in the White House. If they are going to be remembered at all, it will be with derision and mockery.

How does a library accommodate that reality without descending into full-scale revisionism?

Will the official documents include the reams of tweets, laden with untruths and rhetoric, which may or may not have been composed by Biden himself? Might there be a video running of Biden’s contemptible behavior during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991? Will a kiosk have a loop playing of Biden’s “courageous” decision to step aside from the 2024 election?

When one considers the highlights of the Biden Library, the possibilities run from the ridiculous to the nigh-on criminal. It will take extreme massaging to make the Biden economy out to be a good one. Maybe the library will extol Biden’s bold vision when he bestowed upon George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps there will be a display of the ensembles worn by “Rachel” (Richard) Leland Levine.

Who is going to want to see this sort of thing on display? Who could possibly take it seriously?

For half a century many of a leftist bent have ridiculed Richard Nixon. They have had even worse things to say about Ronald Reagan. They would have us believe that those two presidents were the most horrible in any living memory. But their libraries, which don’t lack visitors, say something different. They speak, and will continue to speak, about the men and their time of service to their country — something they performed with nothing less than the best interests of the American people at heart.

The humility present in the Nixon Library will be completely absent in the Biden Library. From his beginning in politics over fifty years ago Biden has been fixated on his own filthy lucre and influence. And future generations are going to know that, no matter what his library attempts to convey. Nobody will go and come back feeling better educated and appreciative because of his time there.

The future Joseph Biden Presidential Library will be the be-all and end-all last word on the life and times of the 46th president. But it will be a sham. It will take a herculean effort to effectively spin his earthly span of years into something noble and heroic.

Then I think about the future library of Donald Trump, which already portends to be a dazzling edifice. For the man himself, it will be the centerpiece of the legacy of his life and two terms in the White House. But for his enemies, it will be a permanent insult to them and all their schemes and devices. It will practically be a gold-plated “Smoke you!” to their bitterness. Trump’s foes will be gone and forgotten, but his library will endure. And the crowds who will line up at the Trump Museum will be enormous. They may even rival those at Reagan’s.

That will never happen with Biden’s museum. Not for the man most responsible for his country’s worst decline in generations. Very few will desire to be reminded of America as it has been in the past four years.

As noted, the presidential libraries have come to serve another purpose. Many are the final resting places of their presidents, where admirers can come and pay their respects. Despite the many decades since their passing, the graves of Harry Truman and his family still draw many visitors.

People enter politics for many reasons, but the fear of an ignominious death after a life of little achievement must be one of the more prevalent. Political hopefuls want their names inscribed in the annals of the nations, and for that they will do almost anything.

Maybe it’s not a matter of asking who will visit the Joe Biden Presidential Library so much as it is a matter of asking this: Who will want to even pause and respect the man at all?

Christopher Knight has written for The Western Journal and American Thinker. His blog is at theknightshift.com.